The Dawn Before the Sun: Alola's Past
by RadBattery
Summary: 25 years before the events of Sun, timid, shy Guzma set out to complete the Island Challenge, as did Kukui, both competing with and befriending other familiar faces. But while all things seem well in Alola, the Kanto wars and creatures from Ultra Space threaten to send Alola into chaos; and the heroes of one story may become the villains in the next...
1. The Wake Escape

**This is my first fanfiction, please give me thoughts, feedback, and constructive criticism to help the story and my writing improve. Enjoy!**

Chapter 1: The Wake Escape, 25 years before the events of Sun and Moon

While it felt like just another vibrant and sunny morning in the busy Hau'oli City Marina to any onlooker, Violette and Alexander were suspicious of everything in the new region as they got off the ship from Kanto with their teenage son, and they flipped on their hoods to avoid detection.

Violette nervously scanned the harbor.

"See any Rocket Spies?"

"The coast looks clear," Alexander responded, "but we can't assume it's safe until we get to the other side of Hau'oli City"

The three hooded figures shuffled their way through the crowd with their meager belongings. They had learned to travel light from all the times they needed to escape in a moment's notice during the war in Kanto.

Alexander looked at his poor child. He was clutching his arm nervously, a habit he had picked up after a Team Rocket grunt had broken it with his Raticate's tackle attack.

"That was nine months ago," he thought to himself, "Maybe I'll keep my boy close to home, send him to the local trainer school. He's much too frail to go out, the world is too dangerous." Alexander decided, feeling slightly calmer having chosen to keep his son safe instead of letting him go on a pokemon journey.

On the other side of the short teen, Violette's heart was still racing, knowing that Team Rocket had spies in Alola just like all the other regions, she hoped they would be able to pass through Hau'oli City undetected.  
She grimaced, she was tired of moving, it felt like every week in the war they were being shifted around. Not only did they have to spy on Team Rocket and gather information for the CM, but they also needed to stay undercover the whole time, not being found out as informants for the enemy.

"Thank Arceus we're done with it all." She thought.

She took a deep breath as they entered Hau'oli City proper, she needed to calm herself and regulate her breathing. The air was fresh and sweet, almost therapeutic, and Violette smiled for the first time in a while. As they neared the other side of the city, said to be the largest in Alola, it struck her how small and calm it was, especially when compared to the largest city in Kanto. The terrible, smoggy Saffron City was home to too much trauma, and despite Kanto being her home her whole life, she was glad to leave the bitter and war-torn region.

She patted her son on the shoulder, and she felt his body stiffen, and then relax when he realized it was only her hand and not a Rocket Grunt.

As promised, there was a quiet house right outside the city, on Route 2. And when they entered it, they were surprised by a man wearing the badge of the international police, waiting for them inside. Without even looking at him one could feel his youthful energy, even though a closer inspection would show him to be around forty.

"My name is Agent Nanu", the policeman said with a welcoming smile, "And I work for the international police. Can I get your names?"

The three took off their hoods, revealing Alexander's blonde hair, and Violette's raven black.

"My name is Violette Wake"

"And I'm Alexander Wake"

"And what about you, little guy?" Nanu looked down with a friendly grin.

"My name is Gu-Guzma" The teen stuttered, looking down.

.

.

Upstairs in his room, Kukui was panicking.

"Molayne, what am I going to DO? What if I don't pick the right pokemon and I'm stuck with one I don't like? Then Bruno's dad is gonna hate me for not liking his Pokémon!"

Molayne hated it when his best friend was like this. He hated it even more when it could have been avoided, but Kukui decided to arbitrarily do something stupid.

Like right now.

"I _told_ you you should have gotten your first pokemon last year... or the year before that... or the year before that! You've just been putting pressure on yourself-"

"But you weren't allowed to get a pokemon until now, your stupid parents were worried you'd be irresponsible about your asthma or whatever. ' _Oh no, Molayne_ '," Kukui mimicked Molayne's mother's voice. " ' _You can't leave the house or see the real world, you're sick with something vague and inconsequential._ '"

Kukui looked straight into Molayne's eyes.

"I wasn't leaving Hau'oli City without you."

Kukui had cut him off, and like always, Molayne had no response, it seemed like whenever he got in an argument with Kukui, he could never win. When Kukui got worked up about something, he could get ruthless, ready to guilt-trip just to prove a point, but, Molayne conceded, he really did sound like a true friend.

At first glance it really was an odd friendship, Molayne was pale and sickly, with a mop on blonde hair on his head that looked like someone had thrown it there. He wore thick glasses all the time, and a crooked smile most of the time. He was actually quite tall, but since he slouched you couldn't tell, but you definitely wouldn't be able to tell alongside Kukui, who, while being slightly shorter, was tan, broad and muscular, and wasn't afraid to show it, rarely going outside with a shirt on, and usually wearing only shorts. Even though he needed glasses, he rarely wore them, preferring the blur to their annoying presence on his face, which he saw as being otherwise perfect.

They had been friends for as long as either could remember, and inseparable since. Each knew the other better than they knew themselves, and people often joked that they were psychic types, able to read each other's minds.

"It's gonna be ok," Molayne broke the silence and looked straight at Kukui. "Everyone knows that Hala isn't just Bruno's dad, he's everyone's dad. Hala will be fine with whoever you pick, you're really just nervous because this is your last chance to get a starter Pokémon from Hala."

Kukui nodded slowly, biting his tongue.

"Okay fine," Molayne groaned, "maybe your current fight with Bruno as well."

Molayne exhaled, and glanced out the window. "We should probably get going soon, because I can't really run and it's al-"

"Almost ten o'clock! We need to get going!"

Kukui cut him off again, and then bolted down the stairs.

"Meet you there!" he called back, taking off on route one to Iki town.

Molayne chuckled a bit, taking out the gleaming new pokeball he had received that morning, and started his stroll to Iki town, chuckling a bit to himself with the pure joy of starting one's journey.

.

.

Nanu handed out coffee to the two parents and sat down at a table in their new dining room.

"Tell me the whole story, okay?" Nanu looked at them. "I need to know everything. The police here know next to nothing about the war."

Violette and Alexander exchanged glances

"Don't worry," Nanu assured them, "I'm on your side."

Violette began to speak.

"There had been a tension brewing for years between the CM and the Gym Leaders over who was really in charge of the Kanto region."

"The CM- who are they?" asked Nanu.

"The Council of Mew," Alexander chimed, "all nine elder mew that have endured since creation, fighting against dangers to our world, with an army of nearly all the able wild pokemon to assist them."

"The Gym Leaders," Violette continued, "acting as the government in the Kanto region, were often ordered around by the Council, whose primary interests were the rights of pokemon, not people. Gym Leaders had long been grumbling about a way to capture the mew and end the struggle for dominance, but legendary pokemon cannot be captured with regular pokeballs."

Nanu nodded silently, as if to encourage Violette to keep explaining.

"Nine months ago, rumors arose that the Silph Corporation was working on a secret pokeball that would be able to catch any pokémon, even a legendary pokémon, without fail. When the CM heard about this, they ordered Silph Co. to stop development immediately. However, Silph wouldn't budge, and got the support of the Gym Leaders and Elite Four in Kanto."

Violette took a couple of deep breaths and kept talking.

"But the Council of Mew was so strong, even the Gym Leaders could not best it- alone. The Gym leaders, let by Agatha, made a deal with the villainous Team Rocket; in exchange for help and manpower in the war, the Kanto region law enforcement would not interfere with any plans of Team Rocket until all twelve leaders agreed to nullify the pact- and of course Giovanni, the Team Rocket boss, was a gym leader himself. With the army of Team Rocket grunts, the tides of the war are now turning against the CM."

Nanu looked out the window, pondering what he had just heard.

"And what did you have to do with all this?"

This time, Alexander spoke.

"We became spies for the CM as soon as Team Rocket started fighting. We helped gather information on the plans of Team Rocket and give them to the Council of Mew, and we may have changed the outcome of a lot of battles. However, Team Rocket figured out fairly quickly that there were spies in the ranks, and Violette, Guzma and I were forced to flee."

In a pause provided by Alexander, Violette continued.

"We had to run away, moving from place to place in Kanto, never staying anywhere for more than a week. Finally we were able to escape to here, with the help of you, the CM, and the international police."

Nanu looked at them with newfound respect.

"You are quite brave and valorous people then, risking then leaving your lives in Kanto for the freedom of pokemon."

"It's really not such a big deal, just don't mention it, okay?" Alexander murmured.

"No really," Nanu proclaimed, "I mean it. You could have been living comfortable lives at home in Kanto, but you gave it all up for the sake of pokemon. Please; I know it may sound odd, but I'd like you to come to my Police Station in Po Town as guest speakers about your selflessness, my colleagues and I could really use some inspiration. Would you do that?"

"Well," Alexander started, waiting for his wife to object. When she simply looked down, he took a deep breath and continued.

"We didn't exactly have the best lives in Kanto to lose, there, I was a con artist, selling a special 'Potion' for 300P each, talking up its amazing restorative powers for pokemon in and outside of battle, even though it was just a smaller serving of the 250P fresh water in a spray bottle. While it did help me come wartime, I wouldn't exactly call myself a valorous man."

"I was always the example from the crowd," Violette added sheepishly, "a single spray of 'potion' would heal up my poor Vulpix, who was only dirty because Guzma had played with it in the mud before the presentation."

She paused for a moment, then her face lit up.

"Speaking of, they should get to know the new house. Come on out, Vulpix!"

A Kanto variant vulpix with a well kept red coat came out of the pokeball, and snuggled up by Violette's legs.

"You too, Gastly!" Alexander sent out his pokemon as well, and his gastly turned invisible to avoid the ambient sunlight.

Nanu looked at Guzma, who had been silent the whole time.

"What do you remember, buddy?"

Guzma looked up at the friendly policeman, his eyes concealing held back tears.

"We ran away a lot."


	2. Follow the Spiders

Chapter 2: Follow the Spiders

Nanu sized up the delicate boy, Guzma. He was a short kid for his age, with jet black hair that hung in his face ever so slightly, and wore a black shirt with a picture of a Kanto variant geodude on the front. His grey track pants had faded knees, probably from crawling, and his scuffed up navy blue sneakers had clearly seen plenty of heavy use and wear. From his three years as a policeman, Nanu could tell he would make a good thief.

"In Kanto he probably was one," Nanu thought.

Nanu was not just a policeman, and despite all this, he saw in Guzma's eyes the determination and strength of some of his strongest island challengers.

"Say Guzma," Nanu smiled, "How would you like to try the island challenge? Luckily for you, today is a day a handful of kids your age are starting their journeys. You would need a pokemon of your own of course, but either the trial captain or kahuna can help you with that." Nanu saw Guzma's face light up, and smile for the first time in the Alola Region.

"Y-yes please sir. I would like that."

Nanu glanced up at the clock on the wall with a slight frown.

"By now, all of Hala's pokemon should have already been claimed by other kids starting their adventures. Why don't you go ask Puna, the island's Kahuna? She's probably in Verdant Cavern, where she battles as the Kahuna. She's no ordinary trainer, I'm warning you, but I'm sure she'll be able to help you out. Why don't you ask her for help catching a pokemon?"

"Well," Alexander interjected, "I'll at least let you get a pokemon at this point. Come back home right after to show us, ok?"

Alexander's eyes flitted at Violette with worry; they wouldn't let their son leave, even if he had a pokemon.

Nanu's smile faltered, but he regained his pleasant countenance within moments.

"The path from here continues on Route 2 through tall grass, where wild pokemon might jump out at you, so take this smoke ball. Just use it whenever you run into a wild pokemon, then run away as fast as you can. It should work pretty reliably too, even though it's better if your pokemon will hold it."

Nanu handed a purple translucent sphere filled with a peculiar white mist.

"Don't be afraid to use it, it automatically replenishes, just don't ask me how, because I've got no clue."

Guzma looked at the policeman, his eyes shining with delight and excitement, but managed to pull off a level tone.

"Run away a lot? I think I can do that..."

.

.

Molayne got to Iki town just in time to see a trainer he didn't recognize take the last starter pokemon Hala was offering. He scanned the area for Kukui, and found him by the bridge, arguing with Bruno.

Again.

"Oh, come on Bruno! Give your dad some credit!" Kukui shot a sideways glance at Molayne, beckoning him to come over.

"Bruno here thinks that his dad is lame for staying in Alola. C'mon Molayne, tell him he's wrong!"

Bruno exhaled, and grumbled, "If he was really as good as you're making him out to be, why didn't he go to other regions? I hear that the gyms in Sinnoh are much harder than our little 'Island Trials'."

Molayne looked up at the towering Bruno. Significantly taller and stronger than both he and Kukui, Bruno was a huge mass of muscle, with long, raven colored hair that almost touches his shoulders. Through his whole life living relatively near him, and four years of trainer school with him, Molayne had never seen the giant fifteen year old smile, and as far as he knew Bruno hasn't smiled in his entire life, coming out of the womb as a stoic, blank faced baby.

Molayne noticed that they were both awaiting his response, Kukui smug and Bruno glowering, his arms crossed over his bare chest.

Bruno, like Kukui, rarely wore a shirt, but unlike Kukui, there was no vanity involved, a shirt was simply cumbersome and unnecessary.

"I'm gonna stay out of this one..."

Molayne began to back away, and bumped right into Bruno's father, and a trial captain on Melemele Island, Hala.

"What's all the fuss about guys?" Hala asked with a smile.

In sharp contrast to his son, Hala never stopped smiling, always laughing with others, and everyone who met him liked him instantly. The middle-aged man was the soul of Melemele Island, making sure to greet all newcomers and know everybody's name. People joked that Hala was everyone's second father, as he would frequently take children to the movies, or sporting events, and sometimes he would teach them the basics of martial arts, surfing, and pokemon battles.

"Nothing." Bruno responded immediately, making sure Kukui wouldn't begin to recount the conversation; Molayne wouldn't consider it.

Hala laughed, proudly stroking his black handlebar mustache.

"Well there's clearly something going on, so why don't you ease the tensions a bit with a pokemon battle? You all got your first pokemon this morning, this should be your first battle with them ever, correct?"

Bruno frowned.

"Yes, but how can 3 people battle at once?"

Hala laughed again, thoroughly enjoying himself. "Try a free for all, a Battle Royale! They aren't very popular yet, but as soon as the Royal Stadium gets finished they will be popular all over Alola!"

Kukui nodded. "Sounds like a blast!"

Then, he leaned down, and in an undertone, whispered to Molayne,

"Bet you don't know what starter I chose."

Molayne rolled his eyes and whispered back his answer.

Kukui jumped back, surprised.

"How'd you know so quick? It took me ten minutes just to choose for myself!"

Molayne shook his head with a smile, being around Kukui so much made his friend easy to read.

Bruno's frown didn't move or speak for a while, mulling his father's words, but hidden amusement danced in his eyes.

"What good will it do if I effortlessly defeat Kukui?"

"You're on cousin!"

The three of them lined up for their first battle.

.

.

Guzma made it to Verdant Cavern, successfully using the smoke ball to escape from two Spearow, a Growlithe, and a Yungoos.

He held up his precious purple orb.

"This is one neat item," Guzma mumbled to no one in particular, staring up at the cave mouth; Verdant Cavern.

Holding the ball tightly in hand, he went through the vines that made a doorway and into the dimly lit cave.

"H-hello?" Guzma stuttered, taken aback by the vastness of the lush cave, and the thick white threads that covered every surface but the floor. The gossamer strings hung from the ceiling, coated and bound the trees, and covered all small caves. It scaled all the walls, filled every nook, and spread in large webs across trees.

"Spiders," Guzma whispered, "A lot of spiders"

Guzma was fine with spiders, with all bug types, he got to know the pokemon whenever he and his family needed to hide, usually in a basement, or the storage compartment of some vehicle.

Guzma remembered why he had come.

"P-Puna? I... I was told to c-come to here. I-I need help f-for a pokemon."

Guzma bit his lip, angry at his stutter, but unable to stop it. He wished there was some magical or medicinal cure for stutters, but his parents had already looked into it long ago.

"It'll go away on its own," the doctor's words echoed in Guzma's mind.

Lost in thought, he didn't notice a large ariados, bigger than he was, silently drop from ceiling suspended by a silk rope. With a smirk, the Ariados used his best scary face attack.

Guzma gasped when he came to, and as an instinct turned to run. With an expertly placed string shot, ariados hit Guzma's ankle, and within seconds had little Guzma suspended upside down, covered neck down in string shot. Ariados' pincers chattered with glee as it dragged its catch down deeper into the cave.

.

.

Whenever a challenger came to beat Puna's grand trial, she made sure they knew that not all strong trainers were as kind as Hala. By having her airados tie them up until she would enter, coupled with having them see the interior of Verdant Cavern, they would usually be rather intimidated from before the battle, and most certainly scared out of their wits.

While it was always amusing to see the fright in the eyes of children at the sight of the spiders, it was even more enjoyable when adults would come, as they were even more cowardly than the children, and faced far more embarrassment afterward.

One of the joltik she had bred came and alerted her she had another trial goer.

"A good thing too," she thought, ready for a break in her boredom.

Few people ever cleared _her_ grand trial the first time anyway, so she figured whoever it was would be back later to amuse her as well. She called her four spinarak to suit her up in her armor, and set out to unbind and defeat her challenger. The trip was always a thrill, using the same spinarak to swing as an acrobatic arachnid herself, one on each wrist and ankle, shooting gossamer ropes on her command, letting her fly in the way only her eight legged friends could.

When she arrived at the Verdant Cavern battlefield, where she had trained Ariados to bring any challenger, she stopped, dropping her composure in surprise.

Her best, strongest ariados was being tickled by the challenger, who had managed to free an arm. She watched the challenger in shock, he was a small boy with black hair, wriggling like a caterpie, playing games with an ariados she had trained into an intimidating monster to anyone but herself.

She stared, stunned by the law-breaking display of confidence and comfort this child had, despite his recent abduction and capture, to the point where he could not just touch or pet Ariados, but play with it casually like an old friend.

She stood there, impatiently waiting for Ariados to notice her. A moment later, Ariados glanced up and saw her, and the spider pokemon backed away from Guzma and bowed its head in shame. As soon as Ariados stopped, so did the boy, and following the pokemon's gaze up to Puna, fully garbed in her armor, ready to face off against this most unusual challenger.

"A-are you this Ari-Ariados' t-trainer? I d-d-didn't mean t-to cause any t-trouble."

.

Guzma stared in awe and terror at the beautiful woman, clearly cross with Ariados. Rather tall, she had wavy hair, dyed blue, reaching past her shoulder, almost to her elbows. She wore a tight fitting, electric green metal armor on, covering her shins, forearms, outer thigh, and upper arm, with large enough gaps at the joints to allow for full mobility. Her slightly darker green, leather bodysuit on her torso that showed the full extent of her figure, slim and tall, with powerful legs and small arms.

She wore heels the same color as her armor, but the heel itself was so narrow Guzma was amazed it didn't puncture the soil that she stood on. Most amazingly, attached to both her ankles and wrists were Spinarak, who shot string shot on her command, letting her almost be a spider.

She spoke, authority and amusement rolling off her tongue.

"I am Puna, Kahuna of Melemele Island, your opponent in my grand trial of Melemele Island on your way to finishing the island challenge... if you can."

Guzma realized that most people went to the other guy for their first pokemon.

"I think there was a m-mistake. My name is Guzma and Nanu told me to come to you for a pokemon, my first pokemon. I... I haven't started the island challenge yet."

"What an odd kid," Puna thought, surprised by his sudden shyness.

While he was at total comfort with pokemon like Ariados, usually scorned by children like him, but as soon as he was talking to another person he froze after every word, stuttering and faltering in every sentence.

Puna too had a personal loathing with dealing with other humans, and she saw deep within him the talent of a great pokemon trainer.

Puna motioned casually to Ariados to cut Guzma free, and he stood up immediately. She handed him a few pokeballs.

"Go catch a pokemon on the coast of Route 3, that's your first pokemon. Congratulations." she paused as the boy's smile grew wider that what should be physically possible.

"T-thank y-you, I-"

"Get rid of that syrupy smile, it's nauseating. Just go and catch a pokemon, because I expect you back here not only with a pokemon of your own, but with proof that you were able to beat Hala, the trial captain on Melemele Island, so you can battle me. Our eventual match is one I'm looking forward to, clear?"

"Y-yes, Miss,"

Guzma looked up at Puna with determination in his eyes, and in a clear voice,

"I'll be back."


	3. Battling with Tooth, Nail, and Fist

Chapter 3:

"In a battle royale, each person uses up to three pokémon. When one trainer is knocked out, the player that knocked out the most pokemon wins! That's all there is to Royales, get to it!"

Hala finished up the rules, and Bruno, Molayne, and Kukui all lined up for the first battle of their journey.

Bruno sent out his pokemon first, shortly followed by Molayne and Kukui.

"Go, Machop!"

"Come on out, Magnemite!"

"You're up, Litten!"

Bruno did a quick assessment of the pokemon in play. Magnemite would be fairly easy to take out, but as long as it was around it could attack Litten. One KO to win. Should he just hit Magnemite? He remembered that magnemite usually have sturdy, so hitting Magnemite would simply be handing Kukui and Litten the win. Anyway, Litten was clearly the more important pokemon to take down.

Kukui also gave the battlefield a look. He had the type advantage on Magnemite, and Molayne wouldn't start off attacking him. Maybe he should knock out Magnemite anyway, no mercy during a battle. Hala's words echoed in his mind:

"Magnemite usually have sturdy, an ability that leaves a pokemon with full health at at least one health, even if hit by an attack that would otherwise knock it out."

Kukui grimaced; attacking Magnemite would simply hand the victory to Bruno. No way that was happening. Clearly Machop was the big deal here anyway.

Molayne's eyes darted back and forth between his opponents, both strong, confident powerhouses with the type advantage. He would need to level out the playing field a bit if he wanted to put up a good fight before he lost.

"Machop, karate chop on Litten!"

"Litten, ember on Machop!"

"Magnemite, thunder wave on Machop!"

Kukui grinned. Molayne was working with him, it was time to finish off Machop.

Bruno understood that while the paralysis inflicted by Magnemite's thunder wave was annoying, he needed to rough it out to take down Litten to win.

Molayne adjusted his thick rimmed glasses, surprised Magnemite was not only still standing, but at full health too. Emboldened, Molayne called out Magnemite's next attack.

"Litten, ember on Machop!

"Magnemite, thunder wave on Litten!"

"Machop, karate chop on Litten!"

Kukui grinned. Litten might be low health, but so was Machop, and Magnemite could be taken out easily. Litten should still be fastest too, so whoever he took out, Kukui needed the other pokemon to not target Litten.

Molayne realized another turn had passed without his Magnemite fainting. Not only that, but the other two were within knockout range.

Bruno considered his options. Whoever he took out, the other would be able to beat Machop. Molayne hasn't yet revealed Magnemite's attack power, but Litten and Kukui would definitely get the knockout on him if given the chance. He'd have to risk it.

"Litten, use ember on Machop!"

"Machop, karate chop on Litten!"

"Magnemite, tackle Machop!"

Litten didn't move. Magnemite outsped Machop with its tackle and got a clean knockout. Machop's karate chop never landed, and with that, the battle was over.

"Why didn't Litten move?" Kukui trailed off, wondering how he could have lost the battle where he was so sure he would have won.

Hala put a hand on his shoulder. "Sometimes, if a pokemon is paralyzed, it won't be able to attack. It's all right, you battled excellently! Same goes to you, Bruno, and of course, all the more so to our victor Molayne."

Molayne blushed. "I didn't expect to win, I guess I got sorta lucky."

Kukui's face brightened. "That was super, super awesome! Can't wait to battle others and get stronger, next time I'm gonna win. Woo!"

Bruno grunted, turned around and started to leave. "That was just chance. Next time I _will_ win. Enjoy the victory while you can."

Molayne chuckled nervously, and Kukui put a hand on his shoulder.

"Aw, don't mind him. You were great!"

"Thanks, Kukui."

Hala laughed. "Why don't you two go train by Ten Carat Hill? It's directly south from here, by the beach. It's a great place to get stronger!"

"Sounds great Hala, will do," Kukui nodded.

Molayne looked down.

"I think I'm going to back to my parents before I go, maybe I'll see you there?"

Kukui smirked.

"Fine, but I want a battle when we do! See ya!"

.

.

Guzma was searching on the beach for a pokemon. He imagined himself with a growlithe like the one on Route 2, a loyal, strong fire type that could protect him.

"Growlithe would be nice..."

A Vullaby jumped out at him, a beady red eyed, baby vulture pokemon with an eggshell around its bottom like a diaper. Guzma smirked, and figured catching this vullaby would be a good start. He took out the pokeball, staring at the smooth red and white surface, trying to figure out the best way to throw it. As soon as Vullaby noticed the pokeball however, it scowled, letting out an angry cry, launching itself at Guzma with a peck. Guzma reacted by instinct, letting out smoke from the smoke ball, turned around, and ran.

"Note to self," Guzma thought, "do not start with vullaby."

He slowed down, having shaken the cranky vullaby, and his eyes drifted towards the ocean.

Could he catch a water pokemon?

Guzma waded into the water, and spotted an orange magikarp lazily swim in front of him, and realized that he would need to bring it out of the water to catch it. He grabbed it with both hands, getting a secure grip around the upper yellow fin of the pokemon. He tried to heave it out of the water, but the magikarp, much stronger than he, yanked him headfirst into the seawater.

"Careful! What are you doing in there anyway?" A feminine voice came from the beach, But even after he got his head above water, his eyesight was too blurry from the saltwater dripping down his face.

"Oh good, you're ok. I was worried there!" The voice giggled, "I'm Lusamine. What's your name, and why were trying to catch a water pokemon with your hands?"

Guzma's eyes cleared up, and he looked up at the voice, at Lusamine.

Lusamine was the most beautiful girl Guzma had ever seen, and, he contended, ever will see. She had long, straight, blonde hair that reached her lower back, and was wearing a light blue summer dress with leather flip flops. She had gorgeous green eyes that seemed to shine gold in the beachside sun, and long, slim legs and curvy hips, complementing an otherwise petite figure. Around her neck she wore a dazzling pure crystal, translucent like glass save a light blue star traced around the crystal's core. She looked young, possibly even younger than Guzma himself.

"Don't stutter," Guzma repeated silently, "Just don't stutter."

"I... I'm Guzma. I'm trying to... trying to catch my first pokemon."

Lusamine laughed lightly.

"Well, you can't catch a pokemon from inside water without a fishing rod... why don't you try the wild grass over there, down the beach? My boyfriend is around there, looking for a pokemon he bred that ran off, so I'm going that way anyway, if you want to come along."

Guzma nodded, wiping wet hair out of his face, happy to get some time with the beautiful girl, even if she had a boyfriend.

As they walked, Lusamine gazed out at the sea, and started talking without any prompt from Guzma.

"You see, I'm not really interested in pokemon battling, but I'm aiming to complete the island challenge anyway. My boyfriend and I have a dream, to create a safe haven for pokemon to play in peace, a paradise. A wealthy philanthropist told us he would fund it, but only if we proved our worth in the island challenge. So you see, the island challenge isn't just a way to show strength- for us, it's an opportunity to help all the pokemon in the world!"

Lusamine stopped walking, then turned to Guzma.

"I talked the whole time, didn't I? Sorry about that!"

Guzma looked at her without saying a word. Lusamine giggled.

"Y'know what, I think you're just more of a listening type, you're a good listener!" Lusamine glanced back at the vast cerulean ocean.

"In any case, I would recommend trying to catch a pokemon from in that tall grass," She motioned with a slender arm at a bushy patch of grass by a ledge that dropped down into the sea, "I gotta get back to my boyfriend, hope to see you again over our travels!"

Guzma nodded in agreement, and watched her skip away along a different road, wistfully and passionately hoping for her parting words to come true.


	4. Until Somebody Loses an Eye

Chapter 4: Until Somebody Loses an Eye

Molayne first noticed the slight, familiar, and dreadful buzzing in the back of his ear almost as soon as he left Iki town. On the road down to Hau'oli Outskirts, it quickly grew worse, and he felt dizzy, and nauseous. Every step became an effort, every breath hurt.

He was passing through Hau'oli Outskirts, his old school not far away...

"Cmon out, Magnemite, I'm not feeling so great."

"Magne..." The worried Magnemite flew closer to Molayne with concern, unsure about how to help him.

Molayne stumbled forward, past the beach on his left and the clothing shop on his right.

"Four more buildings, Magnemite," Molayne rasped, the small apartment building he called home ahead. Magnemite floated under his shoulder, supporting the weak boy as much as the small pokémon could.

Three more buildings, every yard a mile.

Molayne started seeing black spots in his vision, the whole world flipping over as many times as his stomach was.

Two more buildings.

Molayne puked out onto the sidewalk, filled with dread that his breakfast might be the last thing to ever come out of his mouth.

"Manem! Magnemite!" Magnemite tried to offer its most reassuring call.

Next building was his.

"Just... Gotta... Keep... Wa-"

Molayne could no longer form words in his mouth, and his tongue was so swollen speech hurt anyway.

Molayne collapsed, drifting in and out of consciousness right by the door to his own building.

"Mite!" Magnemite started panicking, its trainer looked dead. Then it heard its trainer groan, and understood that he wasn't dead yet; there was hope.

With as much courage as it could muster, Magnemite shoveled its way under Molayne's limp body, and started dragging the scrawny teen, heading towards the apartment building's elevator. Magnemite knew which floor they were on, Molayne's father had traded for him from a breeder and taken him up in the elevator.

When they got to the grey metal doors of the elevator, however, they did not open like last time. Magnemite, unable to think of anything else to do, aimed a thunder wave at the doors, taking great care not to hit the unconscious Molayne slumped over its head.

Direct hit.

The doors started opening and closing frantically, like vertical jaws trying to eat whoever would dare enter. Luckily, Magnemite's logical processor deduced that this was not the case, and it would be safe to go inside. Trying to get the timing perfectly, Magnemite heaved Molayne's weak body into the rapid opening and closing of the elevator doors, then rushed in during the next opening.

Magnemite searched its memory for the floor where Molayne and his father lived-

 _floor 11_

Magnemite found the button that said "11" on it, but the wide, square ends of its magnets couldn't press the unusually small buttons. Magnemite looked back at Molayne, still on the floor of the elevator, with his skin starting to turn a bit purple. From its previous interactions with humans, Magnemite deduced that this was not a normal human occurrence and alarming. Frantically, Magnemite searched the small elevator room for a solution until its eye rested on its crumpled trainers glasses; metal rimmed glasses.

Magnemite used its left magnet to pick up its trainer's glasses, and rammed the long thin earpiece into the button that had "11" written on it.

The doors calmed down and the elevator began to move upwards, and Molayne puked again. When it reached the eleventh floor, the doors did not need any assistance opening, and they stayed open, calmly and efficiently. Magnemite thanked the elevator for being reasonable, hoisted Molayne back onto its head, and dragged him to the third door on the left, another distinct memory. The handle was magnetic and the door unlocked, so Magnemite slipped inside Molayne's apartment, paying no heed to the shocked face of a strange woman in Molayne's kitchen who looked surprisingly similar to Molayne himself, nor the unrecognized blonde crying toddler in the living room. It pulled Molayne into his father's workshop, where Molayne's father rushed forward to help, and then Magnemite itself passed out from sheer exhaustion.

.

.

Machop tagged behind a stern faced Bruno walking purposefully and in absolute silence. Bruno hadn't told it where they were going, but Machop was afraid to ask; Bruno seemed angry, almost sad, after losing the battle against Litten and Magnemite.

Machop smiled jokingly, it knew how to cheer up anyone feeling down. The superpower pokemon rushed in front of Bruno, stuck an index finger in each cheek, pulled, and stuck out his tongue; his silliest face.

Bruno's stoic expression remained unchanged, but he broke the silence.

"It's not really all your fault, But it isn't mine either. We lost a a battle we could have- no, should have won. That means we need you to get stronger, We need to win those, we need to..."

Bruno glanced downward at his Machop. He saw the shamed face of a disheartened and crushed soul, not able to listen to sharp criticism... yet.

With sympathy and care, he knelt down on one knee in a fluid motion.

"Let's try this again. We're both new at this, and we need to be on the same page."

Machop was staring down sullenly. Bruno sighed, he needed Machop's support.

"I can tell you have the potential to be a very strong pokemon, Machop."

Machop straightened up, staring intently into Bruno's eyes.

"But we need to train, we need to train a lot. When we train making mistakes is all right, but once you're on the battlefield you need to be flawless. If you mess up against another trainer, or worse, in a trial, it's an embarrassment both to your honor as a pokemon and my dignity as a trainer."

Machop took half a step back. Bruno tried softening his facial expressions, if Machop wasn't listening they would never make any progress.

"You're a good, strong pokémon, we just need to prove it to the world, that's all."

Machop smiled weakly, stepping back in towards Bruno and pumping its fist into the air.

"Ma-chop!"

Machop closed its eyes, determined to show that he was just as good of a pokémon as Bruno thought he was.

.

.

Kukui sent out his Litten for the walk down to Ten Carat Hill, and Litten looked away sharply in apparent disgust.

"Aw Litten, come on, don't be like that."

"Lit." Litten spat a small ember attack at Kukui, but it missed.

Kukui smirked, but was no longer feeling the same optimism as he did when they had left Iki town.

"Maybe," Kukui started, his smirk growing into an almost cruel smile, "If you didn't miss like that in battle, we would've won."

"Ten." Litten defiantly turned away, leaving Kukui fed up and angry.

"Don't be like that, if you were stronger, we would have won that! You should have fought through that paralysis, that match was ours!"

Litten looked up with an intense, almost feral, stare. Who was this cocky trainer, blaming the battle on it, even though clearly everything was his fault?

Kukui, feeling like Litten had rebutted his point, continued.

"It definitely wasn't my fault, I did the best a trainer could!"

Litten continued to glare, claws out.

"That was our first battle, how could you lose that?"

Litten hissed, unblinking, a scowl painted on its feline face, and Kukui couldn't stand Litten's moody silence.

"We can move on and forget about this, but if you really wanna keep this up, I got one thing to tell you. Kukui dropped his voice to a seething undertone.

"I want to be the very best, with, or without you. Clear?"

Litten had enough. In a permeating and deafening silence, the small cat pokémon turned around, and simply started to walk away.

Kukui was shocked, but anger consumed him.

He thought about chasing after Litten.

He also thought about returning it to its pokéball.

Instead, he simply watched it's black and red tail as it slinked off, Kukui's eyes burning with frustration and rage.

He was afraid something like this would happen.

.

.

Guzma was losing hope he would ever find a suitable pokémon. He was steering clear of all the vullaby, and the rufflet wouldn't come close. He wanted a cutiefly, but he couldn't stop sneezing around them, and he figured he shouldn't be allergic to his first pokemon. Spearow were just as mean as vullaby, and he definitely didn't want a nasty yungoos, who seemed to despise his trusty smoke ball and it's ability to let him get away despite the yungoos' stakeout ability.

He sat down on a rocky ledge, about to give up and go home, when he saw a red and white pokemon in the bushes, not too far away. Intrigued, Guzma crept forward, watching as the pokemon obliviously waddled through the grass, with a white sack dragging behind it. Guzma was only two meters or so away from the pokemon when it turned around and noticed him.

"Delib?"

The delibird seemed surprised at first, then very alarmed at the site of the pokeball in his hand, and began to waddle away faster than Guzma thought possible. Guzma had, however, spent most his life running, and while he was used to fleeing and not chasing, he wasn't going to let this rare pokemon get away.

"Bird! Deli deli bird!"

Delibird ran through a stone archway with tons of plants and vines growing out from it to form a tunnel. Quick in pursuit, Guzma followed, and soon he emerged inside a beautiful meadow of yellow flowers. He had lost the delibird for a moment, but then saw the red and white head bobbing amongst the bright yellow flowers, and stealthily followed it. The delibird wasn't running anymore, thinking it was safe, and Guzma was closing in, until a cutiefly landed on his nose. Guzma was allergic to cutiefly, and let out and enormous sneeze, shocking all the pokemon in the meadow, including, unfortunately, Delibird, who saw him, and began to run away again, and the chase continued through the vibrant flowers, until Delibird somehow disappeared into the stone ridge lining the meadow.

Guzma cautiously advanced towards the spot in the wall where the pokemon vanished, and discovered a small cave that he could crouch through to enter. As he looked around for the elusive pokemon in the darkness of the cave, he began to feel a bit nervous, the zubat flying above seeming to linger for a bit over his head, almost as if they were considering him to be prey. But more than even that was the eerie silence of the cave, undisturbed save his footsteps crunching on the damp dirt and rocks.

He was about to give up on finding Delibird when a small, grey blur zoomed past him, then hid behind his leg. A large pinsir was chasing it, and it stopped for a moment when it saw Guzma, surprised to see a human in it's secret cave, but then continued charging at the pokemon behind Guzma, not caring that it would have to ram Guzma first.

Guzma swiftly picked up the small pokemon without even looking at it, and began to run away from Pinsir. Quickly, Guzma realized that running simply attracted the attention of other pokemon, most notably zubat, to join in the chase.

Guzma zoomed through the twisting and turning tunnels with the pokemon in his arms, packs of bloodthirsty zubat following, wings beating. Guzma continued running, not letting up, but with one hand he blindly fumbled for his smoke ball and let loose a cloud of white smoke.

Sensing the opportunity, Guzma frantically looked around for a spot to hide, and smiled weakly when he found a small nook in a cliff perfectly his size. With one hand cradling the pokemon, he lowered them both down and into the hole in the cliff wall, completely obscured from view.

"What's your name, little guy?" Guzma asked the shivering, frightened pokemon in his arms,

"Wim... W-Wi... Wimpod..."


	5. AFECD: The Secret

Chapter 5: AFECD- The Secret

 _The edges of his vision blurry, Molayne looked into the electric blue portal, with two strange pokemon talking, One of them was an enormous black, yellow and blue pokemon with a huge mouth taking up most of its body, the other a small pink pokemon, floating in the air. This wasn't the first time he had seen the black one, but he didn't recognize the pink one. He heard in his head telepathic voices from the alien pokemon, speaking in hushed voices._

" _I need some kartana, buzzwole, and celesteela to fight for us, to even up the score against Team Rocket."_

 _The pink one, while smaller than the black familiar one, but as it spoke it commanded an authority that was surprising in contrast to its small and cute features._

" _Well Mew," the black pokemon answered to the pink one, to Mew. "If I recall correctly, that will be impossible to do ever since you cut off the portals into your world from here, rather rudely, I may add."_

 _The large black pokemon had a slow, gravely tone, almost amused at the Mew's request._

" _You know very well that I can let them through, Guzzlord. What is it you want." Mew responded sharply and suspiciously, but Molayne now knew the black pokemon's name, the one that frequented his nightmares; Guzzlord._

" _Simply give us back the power to open our own wormholes, our own portals, and everything will be fine. Why, I'll promise you the best Kartanas we have for your silly war. How about it?" Guzzlord smiled, but Mew wouldn't agree. "Definitely not, there's little reason to unleash your kind on my world and let you destroy it. That's out of the question."_

" _Fine then," Guzzlord smiled, "Twenty five shards of red chain."_

 _Mew's face contorted in anger._

" _Are you out of your mind? You'd be lucky to get one shard out of me."_

 _Guzzlord scowled. "Ten then, and a set of communication orbs."_

 _Mew frowned sourly. "Two shards and the communication orbs."_

 _Guzzlord, although unimpressed, grew impatient. "Fine, two shards, and the orbs, but I'm not sending you very many fighters."_

 _A smile tugged at the corner of Mew's mouth. "That will be fine, I wouldn't expect anything else."_

 _As Mew disappeared through a blue portal, Guzzlord slowly turned around as Molayne frantically tried to find somewhere to hide. Guzzlord's eyes locked with his own as the monstrous pokemon slowly walked towards him, getting so close they could almost touch.  
"You're a faller, aren't you... well then, I'll take care of you very soon..."  
Molayne turned around and started to run away, only to fall off a cliff that wasn't there before and into a dark abyss below..._

Molayne woke up gasping for air.

He was on a smelly cot in his father's workshop connected to an abundance of tubes and wires. This wasn't the first time ever that this had happened, that his disease had hit him this bad, but it had to have been over a year. His father was in a wooden chair from the kitchen, sitting up yet slumped in sleep. The workshop door was open, his mother was in the kitchen, washing dishes, and his four year old brother playing with pokemon action figures on the floor, a Magmortar against an Alolan Raichu. His brother looked up immediately, somehow knowing he was awake despite his silence.

"Mo!" His brother dropped the toy magmortar and rushed up to hug him.

"Hey Volkner, you little dunsparce." Molayne tussled his younger brother's hair and his mother, hearing his voice, rushed into the workshop, waking up his father from the chair.

"You're okay!" said his mother, relief permeating her voice, and then, almost apprehensively, she whispered, "Nobody saw, did they? I mean, nobody knows what happened, right?"

Molayne's parents made Molayne promise to keep his disease, and the nightmares that followed, a secret. Even as such, he himself knew next to nothing about it, except that if his father's eelektross didn't give him electric shocks, it would trigger, making him feel worse and worse until he passed out. If If he did lose consciousness, he would have nightmares about the same black creature, Guzzlord. Even Kukui, his best friend, didn't know his disease wasn't really asthma.

"No Mom," Molayne assured, "Nobody saw."

She sighed in relief, and then her face grew stern. "How could you be so reckless like that! I knew it was a bad idea to give you a pokemon, you were only supposed to go to Iki town and then come straight home! You better hope I only ground you for a year!"

Molayne paled; he had to be able to go on his journey now. Kukui would be long gone on his island trial within a year. Molayne began frantically babbling, saying anything, eyes tearing up. "Mom, please... I went over to Kukui's first, then we had a pokemon battle in Iki town, and I won Mom, I won. In my first battle ever, I beat Kukui _and_ Bruno. You... You can't make me stay!"

Molayne's Mother's eyes softened, but her face remained taut with worry.

"And what, Molayne, are we going to let you leave, and throw caution out the window? What if you can't make it home in time the next time your disease gets worse?"

He voice dropped to a wisper.

"I don't want to lose you, Molayne."

Her eyes were tearing up, her hands clutching her apron.

"That won't happen," Molayne's father spoke up, "I taught Magnemite the move that Eelektross uses to keep you healthy. It can even do it from your pokeball, as long as you aren't pushing yourself too hard. But if you ever feel at risk, just send out Magnemite and tell it to use "magnetic flux" to stabilize your body. That should do the trick! I was planning to tutor your Magnemite as soon as you got home, but for unforeseen reasons there was a bit of a delay."

Molayne's father laughed heartily, and then his face turned serious enough to turn something to stone.

"You need to stay careful out there though. This is not a game... Your disease can kill you."

Molayne nodded quickly, his father was siding with him. His mother opened her mouth, then closed it again, a weak smile on her face, and eyes filled with worry.

Molayne opened his mouth, then closed it again; he didn't want to say anything stupid and jeopardize his trip. But now more than ever he wanted to know what his parents were hiding from him about his disease, and the dreams.

As a point of pride Molayne kept himself practical, contrasting to Kukui's rashness. They worked well as a team, but with Kukui gone Molayne acted overly cautious and Kukui overy reckless. Even keeping that in mind, asking about the secret wouldn't be brave, it would be stupid.

A classic Kukui thing to do.

 _Here goes,_ thought Molayne, taking a deep breath.

"Mom, Dad, what _is_ my disease? Why can't I tell anyone? Why do I always dream about Guzzlord, about Guzzlord hurting innocent pokemon, terrorizing the Alola region? These aren't just nightmares, are they?"

Molayne's parents were both silent for an eternity. His father spoke first, a nervous smile all too evident on his face. "Molayne, we don't know about your disease, and the dreams with Guzzlord are just that- dreams. Don't make too much out of them."

Molayne saw through his father's terrible lie, and rationally knew that he shouldn't push it anymore, doing so might lead to his entire journey being delayed, or even worse, ended.

"But you know who Guzzlord is." Molayne found the words tumble out of his mouth almost against his will.

"Only because you-"

"You're a terrible liar Dad." Molayne had interrupted his father, just like Kukui always interrupted him. His father quieted, surprised his timid son would be this defiant. His mother sat down on the cot and filled the silence.

"Many, many years ago, your ancestors fled from the period of strife affecting Sinnoh and Kanto following the calamity in Kalos, with many others and came to Alola, uninhabited by humans. However, the pokemon on Alola were constantly under attack by mysterious and terrible pokemon that came from another world through wormholes. These horrible beasts attacked and ravaged your ancestors, and so they prayed to their native legendary guardians for protection, to Azelf, Uxie, Mesprit, and Mew. All of them appeared, and began to fight the terrible pokemon. Sensing the dangerous power of the evil pokemon, the lake guardians crafted an artifact to bind and exile each species of pokemon back to the dimension from which they came. Once the immediate threat had been dispersed, the four pokemon each shaped a guardian pokemon for Alola in their own image- Azelf made Tapu Bulu from it's strong willpower, Uxie made Tapu Fini from it's calm knowledge, Mesprit made Tapu Koko out of it's intense emotion, and Mew made Tapu Lele from it's balanced power and innocence. The otherworldly monsters gone and the Island Guardians in place, the lake guardians and Mew returned to their native regions."

Molayne interjected, no longer afraid to talk. "I've heard that before from you once, I think."

"It's not told very much," his mother replied, "because it diminishes our guardians' power. But you may have heard this next part from Hala as well." His mother took a deep breath and continued, "The Island Guardians each chose a strong trainer to assist them in the keeping of the Alola regions, the Kahunas. Bruno is a direct descendant of the Melemele kahuna, even though now Hala is only a trial captain."

Molayne suddenly became suspicious of her stalling with a tale known to him. "What does that have to do with me?"

His father spoke up.

"The story leaves out one very important piece. The lake guardians and Mew also entrusted seven families, one for each species, to look after the wormholes and artifacts make sure that the otherworldly pokemon can never return. We, Molayne, are the family that has protected the diamond goblet, the artifact that keeps Guzzlord at bay. However, some of these items have been destroyed, and some wormholes still open up, and the alien pokemon leak out into this world."

Molayne grew impatient. "What does this have to to do with me?" He repeated.

"Well," his father continued, "in short, your mother and I had worked with the international police in the monitoring of these wormholes. Thirteen years ago, we were called to investigate a wormhole that opened up near Melemele Meadow, a common spot for the rifts to open. Due to the secrecy involved, we had to take you with us to the spot, and you, a child no older than three, waddled into the wormhole as fast as you could. Your mother and I organized a team, and we rescued you, but it had been too long; you were a faller."

Molayne's eyes widened, and he sat up on the cot. "What is a faller? Guzzlord called me that too."

His mother spoke this time. "A faller is the term used by the international police to describe someone who has absorbed energy from the realm on the other side of the wormhole. For most people, it can cause amnesia, put you in a coma, and for all it makes them a target for these pokemon. However, never had someone as young as you gone in, and that filling of disruptive, twisting energy during your fragile growing body caused your disease, later to be known by the international police as AFECD, Advanced Faller Energy Crippling Disease, you being the only case."

"Affected," Molayne mulled, making up a term that slid off his tongue, "my disease is called 'Affected'."

His mother didn't hear him and continued.

"It is that very energy the lets you see the visions of Guzzlord if the disease gets too strong... Some of the time you will be seeing what Guzzlord wishes would happen, other times they will be true visions of real events from their world. Most of the knowledge of this subject was lost, as the Alolan people attempted to destroy all evidence of these pokemon and have them disappear into a vague and questionable fable that has more fiction than truth."

Molayne was having trouble processing all the information. "Why all the secrecy then?" He asked, "Why hide this all from me?"

His father sighed.

"Talk of these erratic pokemon always leads to chaos. There are many bad people out there who would try to harness the power on the other side of the wormhole. Those who attempted to obscure the existence of these pokemon were not fools, should these monsters ever return, they will raze the Alola Region once more."

Molayne paled, remembering Guzzlord's parting words to him. "How can pokemon be so evil? Are they really pokemon?"

His parents answered in unison. "There was a name for them, long ago, lost to the winds of time..."

His mother shook her head.

"The records in the forbidden section of Malie Library on Ula'Ula Island might know. But if they do, they are the last that do. You must make sure to keep all of this a secret. Terrible, terrible things could happen if the wrong people knew what we have just told you, I hope you understand why we kept you in the dark for so long."

Molayne didn't answer, lying back down on the rough cot, letting the overflow of information seep in.

.

.

On the eleventh floor, two doors away from the elevator and on the left side, lived a portly widow named Ms. Trubbs, who happened to have had her ear to the wall for quite some time, her chatot mimicking her pose, both hearing a wonderful story about the sickly boy next door. A natural gossip, she had always had a funny feeling about the skinny boy. When things quieted down, she looked at her companion chatot. "Do you know who would really pay to hear something like that? Mary from floor eight. Her boy Cyrus is interested in stuff like that, isn't he dearest?"

"Chat-tot!"


	6. A Rough Beginning

Chapter 6: A Rough Beginning

Guzma crouched in the nook in the wall, looking down at the water far below, listening to the incessant flapping of the Zubat's wings. He looked back towards the Wimpod, silently shivering in his arms, seemingly ready to spring out of them at the slightest movement. The sound of the Zubat grew closer, and Guzma realized his mistake; Zubat don't use their sight, hiding would only conceal him for a short time.

"Bat!" A chittering voice gurgled as it swooped in from the sky at his hiding spot, fangs bared. Guzma raised his hands to protect himself and Wimpod, and Zubat dug its fangs into Guzma's forearm with an absorb attack. With a long unused human instinct buried within Guzma, he lashed back at the Zubat, smacking its left wing with an open palm, and sending it falling into the river far below. Arm bleeding, Guzma smiled grimly, picking up a stone and judging its weight. As two more Zubat swoop toward Guzma and Wimpod, he threw the rock, landing it in the left Zubat's open mouth, but the one on the right swooped in and bit his arm, and he quickly swatted it away, two more punctures in his forearm.

The smell of blood brought more and more Zubat, and four swooped in; while he was able to stop two, the other two bit him on his healthy arm before being repelled by rocks and his fists. More blood meant more bats, and this time there were too many to bother counting, or fighting. He backed up against the back of the shallow cave, frantically looking for an avenue of escape, watching them all close in, seeing the spectral figure of a globat who was attracted by the incentive of larger prey.

He looked over towards the Pokémon he had tried to save, closed his eyes, and said to the Wimpod, "I'm sorry Wimpod... I tried." When he opened his eyes, Wimpod was gone, and then he saw the grey Pokémon in the middle of the swarm of bat Pokémon, using an attack, Struggle Bug. The Zubat, hit by the writhing bug, flew higher to regroup, leaving the Wimpod suspended in the air only by its remaining momentum for a second, and then begin to plunge to the river far below.

Guzma, acting on desperate emotion, jumped off the edge and caught the injured and exhausted Pokémon, and plummeted down, Wimpod cradled in his arms.

.

.

"Okay Machop, we made it to the training area." Bruno stopped at the entrance to an overgrown patch of trees, the smell of rotting produce enveloping his nostrils. He looked down at his Machop, and noticed a nervous smile, and a posture that favored his right. He would work on the posture later, there was a very specific aim to the first training session.

"I have thought a lot about how I would start my island trial, whether I will start off catching a second Pokémon, jump straight into training the basics, but I hadn't decided until today. But Machop, we are going to train against the Crabrawler in the Berry grove, right here, on route 2. Crabrawler are a good start for a lot of reasons," Bruno checked to make sure Machop was paying attention, and it was, nodding eagerly and listening. "Crabrawler have wide, blunt, and slow attacks, so they are easy to dodge, they live in piles of berries that can be very helpful, and, perhaps most important, the first trial, my dad's, has Crabrawler as a totem Pokémon. If we want to finish the trial, we have to learn how to combat Crabrawler."

"Maaa-chop!"

"Great." Bruno nodded and walked into the grove with Machop, and quickly found a pile of ripe berries. "There are usually Crabrawlers hiding in berry piles like these. So Machop... try to take the oran berry there, they taste very good."

Machop trustingly reached out to take the blue, round berry when a crab Pokémon jumped out of the pile and surprised him with a leer attack.

"Braw-Braw!" The crabrawler shouted initiating the battle.

"Machop, stay calm. Let him attack first."

"Cra!" Crabrawler launched a rock smash attack at Machop, who raised his arms up to protect himself.

"No Machop, don't block, dodge!"

It was too late, and the clumsy block broke under Crabrawler's pincers, sending Machop sprawling on the ground. Crabrawler leered at Machop again, making Machop afraid to even get up, but he slowly got up anyway, to show Bruno that he was right, that he really was a strong Pokémon.

"Let's try that again Machop, wait for him to attack, but don't try to protect yourself, I'll tell you exactly when to dodge. You need to trust me, ok?"

Machop nodded weakly, knees shaking as he stood.

Crabrawler used rock smash, and Machop's arms involuntarily shot up, and again, the call to dodge could not be followed in time with Machop's arms up, and he went flying, harder this time, into a neighboring tree, then fell face first into the decomposed berries and dirt.

"Machop! Why would you do that, you needed to dodge those! We literally just talked about this!" Bruno scowled at the Machop sprawled on the ground, and Machop struggled to his feet again, swaying uneasily and shaking from the previous blow.

"Don't block Crabrawler, don't even try. Just jump out of the way at my signal to the left. Let's try again."

Crabrawler used rock smash again, and Machop kept his arms down, if only from sheer exhaustion, listening for Bruno.

"Now dodge!"

Machop tried to jump to the left, but instead he stumbled haphazardly, avoiding the attack and falling flat on his face. Crabrawler, sensing the opportunity, readied another rock smash to finish off the weakened Machop, and attacked to hit a crushing blow.

"No!" Bruno shouted, rushing at Crabrawler from behind, grabbing the thin limb behind the pincer it was charging with, swinging the surprised crab Pokémon with it's own momentum over the tree line and out of view. Bruno scooped up his battered Machop and carried it over to the nearby berry pile left by Crabrawler, picking up the Oran Berry dropped from the beginning of the battle.

"Eat this." Bruno fed the berry to Machop, who slowly opened his eyes as soon as he swallowed it.

"Good. Now, let's try it again. You only fail once you stop getting up and fighting back."

"Chop!" Machop shouted, jumping to his feet, partially recovered because of the Oran berry. He was ready to show Bruno that he was a special Pokémon, he would show his trainer that he was strong.

Machop and Bruno kept walking through the forest, quickly finding another berry pile that had shook a bit.

"Okay Machop, there's another Oran Berry. If you can take it before the Crabrawler catches you, you'll almost be at full health. Go for it!" Bruno commanded, and Machop scrambled towards the pile, plucking the plump Oran Berry and leaping back as an angry Crabrawler jumped out at him in anger, putting it's heavy rounded pincers up like a boxer. Machop grinned, sheepishly eating the Oran Berry right in front of the enraged Crabrawler.

"Good Machop, stay calm and wait for my signal to dodge. Don't try to block its attack, okay?" Bruno focused in on Crabrawler, trying to see which side it favors.

The crab Pokémon lunged at Machop with a rock smash attack, and Machop nervously held its ground, waiting for an instruction from Bruno.

"Dodge left now!" Shouted his trainer, and Machop slid to his side, watching Crabrawler sail past him. Crabrawler, now even more furious, used rock smash again, forceful fist outstretched.

"Machop dodge right!"

Machop, still getting up, couldn't respond in time, and got slammed in the back by the rock smash, a critical hit.

"No! Machop, get up quick!"

Crabrawler didn't stop, shifting into a bubble attack at the weakened Machop.

"Machop, you need to get up to dodge that! Jump into the air, now!"

Bruno's call was no use, Machop too injured from the critical hit to get up in time.

"Machop, run behind the tree! This Crabrawler is too strong for you, we need to go."

"Ma... Chop..." Machop struggled to his feet, holding his ground, staring down the Crabrawler; Machop wasn't running.

Bruno's eyes lit up. "Fine then Machop, now we'll attack. Hit it with a Karate Chop!"

Machop staggered towards Crabrawler, and chopped at Crabrawler, who blocked the attack with ease. Then, from close range, the crab pokemon fired off a Bubble attack, knocking Machop back to the ground, and then, towering over him, Crabrawler rammed it's pincers down on Machop with a crushing Rock Smash, knocking it out cold.

"Machop! No!" Bruno rushed in, scooping up his Machop to protect it from further harm, and started running to the Pokemon Center.

.

.

Kukui was storming, walking off rigidly back towards his apartment building in Hau'oli City, leaving the spot where he had fought with Litten, where Litten had left him.

"I would never do that," Kukui said to the overcast afternoon sky, "I would never leave my Pokémon over a petty argument like Litten left me. That would be stupid, it was only a loss, not something to split up with your trainer about. I'm not a quitter, and Litten shouldn't be one either..." Kukui suddenly grew furious at the grey sky, as if it were to blame for Litten fighting with him.

"Graaaaaaah!" He shouted at at the world, a guttural cry of pain and confusion, tears forming on the sides of his eyes, and he sunk down on the dirt path, paralyzed by despair and a subconscious shame, and simply stayed there, on his knees, and began to cry, thinking back on his scathing remarks at Litten, thinking back...

But suddenly, Kukui's thoughts were interrupted by a cold drop of rain hitting the back of his neck, making him shiver, and making him feel even more alone. He hoisted his body up, and started trudging back home again, tears mixing with raindrops on his face, leaving his first Pokémon where it would be better off, without him.

Kukui looked up to watch some wingull seeking shelter from the heavy rain, and his hands went to his pokeball, about to send out Litten to battle one, and then he dropped his shoulders, depressed from remorse. He saw some slowpoke enjoying the rain, and thought about trying to catch it without battling, just so he could have his own Pokémon.

"Slowpoke never get moody. Slowpoke would never run off because it lost a battle." Kukui looked back at Slowpoke, watching it enjoy the heavy rain. "That's funny," Kukui thought, "The rain is so strong, even the wingull wouldn't stay outside." Kukui froze and paled, realizing a grave mistake he made.

"Litten!"


	7. At the End of the Day

Chapter 7: At the End of the Day

Kukui raced back to where he had last seen Litten, his hair drenched and sandals muddy. He found the spot were Litten had walked off, and started following a trail in his memory, visualizing Litten marching away, visualizing the steps it had taken and walking in turn. But fairly quickly Kukui realized that Litten had left too long ago, and tracing it would be impossible. He started frantically searching the area, under bushes and up trees. He tried looking in caves, under rocks, scouring the area for a telltale red and black striped tail, the hint of an ear, or even a thick red whisker, but Litten was gone.

Half an hour of hopeless searching later, Kukui had already given up, but his body kept looking under every leaf, behind every rock, as if it were not ready to give up yet, even though his mind knew that Litten was probably gone forever. He wandered over to some tall grass where he saw some commotion, where he saw a group of about six Yungoos attacking the limp body of an unrecognizable muddy Pokémon. Deep down, Kukui knew it was Litten, it had to be. He rushed forward without a second thought, and reached down to pick up the Pokémon on the ground, but immediately the Yungoos turned on him, biting his heel, ripping the leg of his shorts, and scratching his arms.

"Oh yeah?" Kukui grunted, "That's not gonna stop me." As they ganged up on him, almost bringing his muscular body to the floor, something awakened deep inside him, and he raised his voice to a barbaric shout,

"Get outta here!" He screamed, and the hostile group of Pokémon scattered.

"Litten!" He slipped his hand towards the muddy lump, unmoving in the heavy rain, and found the telling tail, just like Litten's and traced it up to Litten's body, which was, to his surprise, underneath the body of another Pokémon, just as muddy and hurt, but much heavier.

Kukui hoisted the two Pokémon into his arms, and quickly found a shallow cave to wait out the rain in, and he ran inside.

Kukui rested the two Pokémon down on the floor of the cave, wiping back his drenched hair with a muddy hand. He looked back towards shivering Litten and the lifeless lump Pokémon; they needed to warm up and heal up. He thought about returning Litten to his pokeball, but his stubborn pride kept him from doing so; he wanted to win back Litten without needing the pokeball.

Instead, he found a large branch, dry from staying inside the cave and the size of a small trunk, gathered up some get twigs from the ground around it to make a fire; except for the three of them, nothing in the cave was wet. He had finished gathering enough twigs when he remembered that without Litten, he couldn't make a fire.

"C'mon Litten, just one ember attack to start the fire. I'll keep it alive, and you'll feel so much better."

No response from his first Pokémon.

"Please Litten, you gotta..." Kukui trailed off, realizing that Litten was so hurt, it couldn't even save itself. With a grimace, Kukui opened up poor Litten's mouth, and delicately jammed on of the larger twigs down its throat, causing Litten to cough and gag from the pain, embers sputtering from it's mouth, and catching his twigs on fire, just as Kukui had hoped they would.

"You'll thank me later Litten." He grunted, and got some larger sticks, and bolstered the fire with them, slowly building it up to a respectful campfire, just as Hala had taught him. When the fire was stable, he picked up Litten and started running his fingers through the cat Pokémon's matted fur, practically peeling off the heavy coat of mud. Absentmindedly grooming Litten, Kukui sat down against the stone wall of the cave, the uneven rocks cutting into his bare back. As he continued to groom Litten, now working on large clumps still lodged it's fur, Kukui wondered if his friends had experienced such an eventful first days as pokemon trainers. No, he thought to himself, Molayne was probably having a nice and quiet dinner at home, and Bruno was slowly training against weaker pokemon, taking great care to never lose another match. Kukui smiled a bit, resting his still dirty, but not mud drenched cat pokemon on the ground to his left, and picking up the lumpy pokemon he had found with Litten.

"What were you doing, little guy?" He asked the fainted pokemon, starting the process of getting of the thick overcoat of mud surrounding it.

Kukui rubbed his back, sore from the uneven rock wall, and crossed his legs. His adrenaline was dying down, and he was unbelievably tired, his eyes drooping as he transitioned from ripping off the coating of mud to picking off the lingering clumps from the Pokémon's fur. Kukui smiled weakly, listening to the endless rain outside, and drifted off to sleep.

.

.

Bruno waited outside the Pokémon Center emergency room, sitting on a wooden bench, looking in through the glass at Machop getting treated by Chansey. Nurse Joy walked out of the room, a stern look on her face, and opened opened her mouth to say something to Bruno, but before she could, Bruno put up a hand and spoke first.

"I know, it's fine."

"No it isn't fine!" She shouted, "That poor Machop barely hatched, the wounds it has look like they were made by Crabrawler almost twice its level! What were you doing?"

"I was training it against Crabrawler almost twice its level." He responded evenly.

"How could you do that! You're a trainer, you can't just send your Pokémon out to a situation they can't win in! That's irresponsible and cruel!" Nurse Joy looked at Bruno, afraid she may have gone too far, but he simply shook his head.

"I didn't, and I won't." He responded, looking back down at the floor, almost creating a wall of silence, cutting off any further conversation.

With a huff, Nurse Joy went back inside the Emergency Room, and started helping Chansey with healing Machop's back, which was hurt badly. Almost involuntarily, she looked back at Bruno, the fifteen year old giant. He was staring intensely at Machop, and while she couldn't quite make our concern in his face she saw it in his eyes. She sighed, Machop would be okay by morning, but it had a hard lifestyle ahead of it if Bruno kept pushing it like this. She applied the last of the healing potion Machop needed, then quietly motioned to Chansey that it was time for them to go to sleep. As they walked out, she called back to Bruno,

"You're welcome to stay the night in the Pokémon Center, Machop will be much better in the morning."

Bruno grunted something unintelligible in response.

Nurse Joy continued to her bedroom, Chansey yawning loudly to break the silence.

"We're both exhausted, aren't we? Only four days in from the flight from the Sevii Islands and we've been working round the clock!"

She and Chansey were originally from the Sevii Islands, but she dreamed of adventure and excitement even since she was no more than five. So instead of becoming a traditional Nurse like her mother, she became a traveling Nurse, going to different Pokémon Centers to fill in for other Nurses that needed to take a much deserved vacation. From the moment she arrived she loved the Alola region, she loved the air, the Vibrant and happy people living there, and the obliviousness to the terrible war in Kanto and the Sevii Islands. She took bedclothes out of her suitcase and changed into them, looking through the mirror to see her Chansey jump into its bean bag bed, falling asleep instantly, and Joy chuckled, curling up under the covers and kept on thinking about her time in Alola, and Bruno with his Machop. Although they had never met before, she knew who he was, because they day after she arrived, a kind, middle aged man with black hair like Bruno's named Hala had come to welcome her, and had brought her a plate of a fun baked goods called malasadas, and helped her feel really at home in the new region. While they were talking, Hala had shown her a photo of his family, and told her about Bruno and his younger brother, Brawly, and called them the north and south poles, Brawly being as much of a happy kid as his father was, and as for Bruno, Hala had joked, "If I didn't have the most wonderful wife in the world, I would've suspected that he wasn't my kid." She could see now what he meant, Bruno's unsmiling face a sore thumb among the happy Alolans all over the island. She glanced back at her trusty Chansey, sleeping soundly and snoring softly.

"I should do do the same," she thought, closed her eyes, and was about to fall asleep when a huge crashing sound jolted her awake.

"Chan!" Chansey shouted, jumping into the air, startled and awoken by the sudden noise.

Joy put on her slippers, and rushed to the surveillance room, where she saw that the large noise she had heard was from room 2B, where Machop was healing, and the bed was empty. Joy and Chansey rushed down to the emergency room to see what had happened, and found that the bench Bruno was on was vacant, and the window in the emergency room leading outside was shattered, presumably the cause for the crash, and it became abundantly clear that Machop and Bruno had climbed through it and left.

.

.

01L1E was sleeping when she heard the siren of assembly. 01L1E quickly rose off the cot she was resting on, and floated towards the door, grabbing her carrying tube and slipped it over her shoulder as she left. She sighed, the siren had interrupted a dream of her finding a way to the Pokémon world, where she made new friends with the humans. On her way, she got her head cut off for a couple of seconds by 04AR0N, a childhood friend of hers and huge jokester.

"Cut that out, 04AR0N!" She shouted, and then covered her mouth, knowing protesting would be useless as 04AR0N proceeded to take advantage of the unintended pun and slash her head off again, bouncing it in the air before allowing her to reattach it.

"Cmon 01L1E, if you don't stop playing around, we're gonna be late for the assembly." 04AR0N joked, starting to dance away.

01L1E started following him, and then realized her carrying tube was on the ground, the shoulder strap slashed in half by 04AR0N's antics. She picked up the tubular bag with smooth tentacled arms, and sped up to 04AR0N.

"What's in the bag anyway?" He asked, "You go everywhere with it."

"Oh nothing," replied 01L1E nonchalantly, "just some books."

"Let me see," smirked 04AR0N, snatching the metal tube from her hands and slipping a thin arm inside as they continued to float towards the assembly.

"Well well," grinned 04AR0N, " _An Introduction to the World of Humans,_ by Oracle 04K. And also, _The Betrayers: the Evil of Solgaleo, Lunala, and the Pokémon of the Human World_ , by 05W41D." 04AR0N shot a playful glance at 01L1E.

"Someone has a new interest, if I'm not mistaken." He retorted, "Care to explain why?"

01L1E's face reddened, a desire to go to the human world was considered pathetic and queer, and while not forbidden, some had lost friends and jobs, or even disappeared mysteriously, simply by discussing the human world openly without disgust.

"Well," she started, noticing they were very close to the assembly court, "It really a long story that starts way back when-" She cut off, feigning surprise, "Oh look, we arrived, let's sit down."

04AR0N mumbled something unintelligible and sat down with 01L1E in the assembly court, which was a sort of amphitheater or colosseum, watching the royalty enter the middle, and the room erupted with cheering.

The emperor spoke up, and a wave of silence washed over the crowd. "Some of you have made a noble sacrifice today, allowing yourselves into limited servitude to our enemies in exchange for a chance at freeing us all," the crowd tensed up, nobody ever really volunteered, and those who were about to be sent into slavery did not know it until the emperor called their names from the middle of the assembly court.

"02A4N, 02AP, 02AN3, 04A1B15, 04ANN13, 04B52, 04B5, and 04BR4, we applaud your selflessness."

The crowd sighed a breath of relief, barring the few named. 01L1E didn't know any of the chosen names, but she straightened up anyway to hear the remainder of the emperor's speech. "The 128th freedom mission is now under way, I shall explain the details tomorrow, but let me tell you one thing: At long last, it shall mean freedom for all of us Ultra Beasts!"

The crowd erupted in cheer, chanting,

"Long live Emperor Guzzlord!"

"Long live Emperor Guzzlord!"

* * *

 **Feedback is appreciated, I always love to know what the readers are thinking!**


	8. Running Away, Together

**A/N: I hope you enjoy this next chapter, and bear with me for all the ultra beast names, it'll get easier soon.**

 **For those who couldn't piece it together from last chapter, 01L1E is a Nihilego and 04AR0N is a Kartana.**

 **If Ultra Beast culture is confusing, that's because it's different and mostly unexplained. It will be discussed and clarified more in a later chapter, but just run with it for now.**

Chapter 8:

01L1E got back to her living quarters fairly uneventfully, despite her heart beating loudly in her chest. Yesterday her citizen card needed renewal, but thank the emperor she didn't take it in, that would have put her at the from of the system, and she might be spending the night preparing herself for years of servitude to terrible and wretched Pokémon, desperately seeking a way back to Ultra Space. "Although", she thought to herself, "Being in the world of humans wouldn't be so bad." It was a secret dream of hers, a cloistered wish, to go to the human world. In a way, she was both relieved and regretting not going sooner, but it was against the law to not renew your citizen card within 24 hours, so like it or not she had to go now. She looked it over, wondering how much besides her picture would change; she finally qualified to be a productive class citizen, that was important, no more need for education. But, she was 01L1E, a Nihilego, and while now old enough to move from junior class citizen to productive class citizen, she hadn't yet been assigned her work. Now standing at 1.24 meters tall and 58.2 kilograms, she looked back at her old picture; her tentacles had thickened since then, her body reflected more light off her thin film like skin, and she had gone from being below average height for a Nihilego to being tall for one, despite being the smallest species of Ultra Beast except for the miniscule Kartanas like 04AR0N. She hastily tied together the strap to her carrying tube and slung it onto her back, rushing out the door minutes after she had returned, to the Ministry of Citizenship, a tall government building where she could renew her card.

On her way, two strange looking Ultra Beasts, both Buzzwole, stood in her path, and she started to float above them, not wanting to get into any trouble. They flew up, intentionally blocking her path, and one, who was slightly taller, and had a large scar on his left bicep, stepped in front of the other and stuck out his hands, making the obstruction of her path apparent. Many Ultra Beasts acted as thugs, mugging anyone they could and picking on those who looked weaker than them; it was strictly illegal, but it was so rampant the police force barely even tried to contain it anymore.

"Hey girlie," the Buzzwole in back slurred, he was missing his left index finger, and had a metal stump instead. "Why dontchya make this easy, come with us and we won' hurtchya too bad..."

She glared back at them; she was strong enough to take on Stump Finger, but Bicep Scar looked much tougher.

"What is your name, small Nihilego," Bicep Scar asked, staring down at 01L1E, his large proboscis a menacing point almost touching her head.

"I'm 01R47," She answered, the false name easily rolling off her tongue despite how nervous she was. All Nihilego needed their names to start with zero-one, and R47 was the suffix name of 04AR0N's great uncle, who passed away two years ago. "May I pass through? I was supposed to meet with 02BE's secretary thirty five seconds ago, and you know how timely Pheromosa tend to be, it would be so embarrassing for her to have to fetch me!"

Bicep Scar moved back, clearly retreating; 02BE was the highest ranking Ultra Beast outside of the royal family, and was in charge of all of the Pheromosa in Ultra Space. Of course, no such meeting was ever arranged, but 01L1E knew that the boorish Buzzwole would fall for it, as she was a gifted liar, helped not in small part by the cloud of toxins her body emitted that make all around her more agreeable to her, and more willing to accept any notion she put forth. As she moved forward, Bicep Scar flew away, leaving Stump Finger lazily flying through the air, probably drunk, 01L1E realized. She smiled inwardly, against only one of them, drunk at that, she was running the show.

"Urruk..." Stump Finger grunted, "So girlie, wanna come home wit' me tonight?"

She smiled sweetly at him, advancing towards him, floating back and forth, and his body slacked, with only his wings keeping him in the air. As soon as 01L1E got close, she jabbed a tentacle into his chest, injecting her toxins into his body, bringing him into an almost hypnotic state, where her will subdued and replaced his own, and she got a rush of joy out of simply being empowered over the brutish Ultra Beast who had tried to kidnap her. While all Nihilego had toxins that made their prey more aggressive, very, very few had the ability to completely control another with her toxins in the way 01L1E could. She chuckled to herself, withdrawing her tentacle and whispering in Stump Finger's ear.

"Go find your friend, the one with a scar on his bicep," Stump Finger nodded silently in response, "and..." 01L1E trailed off, not knowing if Stump Finger would reach him in time, but decided to have some fun. "Beat him up. You guys are all jerks." She sent him off, chuckling a bit, and continued on to to Ministry, these attacks weren't common, but they weren't very rare either.

The ministry doors opened automatically, and a pheromosa sat at the reception desk. Nearly all of the non-royal government positions were held by pheromosa, all of the Guzzlord were a part of the royal family, and while certain positions were more diverse, like the Oracles, but nearly everything else was run by pheromosa. 01L1E cleared her throat.

"Can I get my Citizen Card renewed?" She asked.

The pheromosa, without even looking up, replied in a bored tone, "Name?"

"01L1E."

The pheromosa looked up sharply, putting on her spectacles, and glaring at her.

"You are 01L1E?" The pheromosa asked, and in response to the silent nod, "Emperor Guzzlord is here to meet with you. Please come with me."

They walked down the hall together, 01L1E clutching her bag tightly with her tentacles. Why would the emperor want to see her? She was a nobody, an orphan who had just finished her education, she was very careful not to break any rules. She started sweating, her stomach literally flipping over in her aqueous body; the Emperor never met in person with anyone who was not of very high stature, and even then only sparingly. The receptionist stopped suddenly, started quickly typing a long code into a keypad by a heavy metal door, and then swung it open. Sure enough, the Emperor himself was inside, fully garbed in the royal attire, and 01L1E shrunk in awe.

"Let's get right down to business, oh-one something or other." Stated the Emperor bluntly, "We have been watching you, your interests, and most importantly, your abilities for quite a while." 01L1E blushed, unsure how she should respond, not knowing if she had done something wrong, her thoughts racing from one extreme to another in her head.

Emperor Guzzlord continued, "You almost certainly are not aware of it yet, but your ability to..." the Emperor searched for the right word, "Sway. Sway others with your toxins is some of the best we've seen in the history of Ultra Beasts. In addition to this, our sources have also... discovered that you hold the dangerous thoughts to go to the human world. Is this true?"

01L1E shivered involuntarily, letting out as many toxins into the air as she could, her survival instincts kicking in. Could she slip out of a confrontation with the Emperor himself?

"I don't know what you mean, I would die to protect Ultra Space, I'm a loyal and honorable patriot, I-"

"02B4NG," The Emperor motioned to the receptionist, "please bring me the young lady's carrying tube." The pheromosa paused, and looked up at the Emperor.

"Sir, I believe she is innocent, I must have made an error in identifying the subject of your meeting."

Guzzlord nodded slowly. Did it work? Maybe the Emperor was right about her having more power than she knew, but had she actually fooled the most powerful living being in Ultra Space?

"Very nice show, zero-one. 02B4NG is a very strong willed ultra beast, certainly not easily influenced like that. Do not worry, I'm not here to hurt you, I wouldn't waste my time on such a thing."

01L1E's shoulders sagged ever so slightly, but was glad she wasn't in any real danger. Emperor Guzzlord continued talking in a deep and gravelly voice. "I'm here to give you a sacred task, going on the 128th freedom mission, because you are uniquely suited for interactions with humans, and because you desire it. You may choose one close confidant to traverse through the wormhole with, and your job is to create a steady portal so that all ultra beasts may cross into the land of humans once more, free of the bondage of the wicked pokemon. I assume you are enthusiastic?"

01L1E nodded eagerly, the great Emperor Guzzlord was meeting her, _in person,_ to give her the job of her dreams!

"Very good," He continued, "Oracle 04K will fill you in on the rest of the details once you are on the other side, in the human world. Should you succeed, you will be revered by all for eternity. Should you fail... well, you disappeared after failing to renew your Citizen Card in time. Good luck."

.

.

Guzma woke up on a dark stone cave floor with his head throbbing with the worst headache he ever experienced in his life. He looked himself over, not getting up from the floor, he was drenched and muddy, lying next to a river, covered with deep, tooth like cuts down his arms, and a deep gash on his left leg. In his arms lay a still sleeping Wimpod, and his clothes were ripped and dirty. His head was spinning, and Guzma shakily and dizzily stood up. He brushed himself off, random red feathers from the water and mud came off with a soggy flopping sound. His movement roused Wimpod, who hopped out of his arms onto the damp cave floor. He felt his head, and his hand came back red, and his eyes widened in fear, and he quickly washed off his hands in the river. When he looked back, Wimpod had disappeared.

Guzma was too shocked to think, after all that, why would Wimpod just... leave? He sighed, Wimpod was better off without him, free and-

Guzma's wallowing thoughts were interrupted by Wimpod's return, with cobwebs all over his small grey body. Wimpod scuttled up Guzma's back onto his shoulder, and started to stick the cobwebs in his hair around the cut, and they worked almost like bandages, clotting the blood.

"Aw thanks Wimpod, I thought you had left me." Guzma chuckled, feeling a bit better despite his injuries.

Guzma leaned over, looking into his reflection in the river with Wimpod on his shoulder. The messily placed cobwebs made his black hair look white in the middle, and muddy blood ran down his arms from the cuts like tattoos. He looked at Wimpod through the reflection, feeling the bug Pokémon clinging to his shoulder, shivering a bit.

"Y'know Wimpod, you and I, we aren't really that different. We're small, weak, and the world doesn't think much of us. We've spent our lives running away from everyone and everything because we know we'll lose."

Guzma sighed, this was a bit more depressing than he had hoped it would sound.

"Two very strong trainers both said that I should take on the island challenge, and one of them even gave me pokeballs to catch my first Pokémon. If... If you join me as my partner, I can't promise that everything I said before will change, I can't promise to make you strong, I can't promise that we'll stop running away. But we will be doing it together, as a team, and I _can_ promise that I'll never run away without you."

Wimpod hugged Guzma's neck, tickling his cheek with the back of his tail. Guzma smiled, and patted the bug Pokémon on the back; it was going to be okay...

Fwip! A rock whizzed past Guzma's head, missing him by mere centimeters, and Wimpod jumped to the ground as Guzma turned around. Standing there, seething with rage, was the Pinsir who had been chasing Wimpod before. It charged, giant claw like pincers stretched forwards at Guzma and Wimpod, not breaking eye contact with the terrified duo.

"Run!" Guzma shouted, taking off with Wimpod in the opposite direction, reaching for his smoke ball, but it wasn't in his pocket. The color drained from Guzma's face; it must have fallen out during his fall, he realized. He raced with Wimpod, looking for an avenue of escape. The Pinsir wasn't faster than they were, but it wasn't slower either, and something told the dizzy Guzma that he was going to need to rest before the giant beetle Pokémon would. He saw another arched cave entrance, seemingly leading to an even darker part of the cave.

"In there, Wimpod!" Guzma grunted in between breaths, his headache pounding.

The two ducked in through the archway and deeper into the cave, and soon lost sight of the raging Pinsir.

"I think we lost him, bud." Guzma panted.

"Pod pod pod!" Wimpod replied with glee.

Guzma remembered what he had said to Wimpod before, and began to try a second time.

"So Wimpod as I was saying before..."

Guzma was cut off again by a blinding blue light flaring up in front of them, curving in a crooked line through the air, then expanding into an electric blue portal that seemed to expel an acidic and hot air from another world. After a couple of seconds, two strange creatures, slightly reminiscent of Pokémon, emerged from the portal, one a blue jellyfish with an odd hat and a long tubular bag, and the other a tiny, paper thin, humanoid creature with swordlike limbs. Each of them was clutching a tiny red crystal, which clearly had been glowing, but were now losing their light. The jellyfish turned straight at Guzma with it's eyeless face, and he heard a telepathic, barely feminine, almost uninterested voice in his head.

"Are you a... Human?" The jellyfish asked, tilting it's head.

"Y-Yeah." Guzma replied, shocked.

"Fascinating. I must leave now, I am in search of a friend." The strange creature touched Guzma on the head with a tentacle, and drifted out with the other creature close behind, and all of a sudden his terrible headache went away, replaced by a burning desire to get out of the cave. But first...

"Hey Wimpod," he started, crouching down on one knee, "Whaddya say? You want to run away together, side by side, as a team?" Guzma took out one of the pokeballs Puna had given him, and held it out, offering it to Wimpod.

"Pod! Wim-wim pod!" Wimpod shouted, and jumped up to press the button on the pokeball, a red light bringing the bug pokemon inside. With a final click from the pokeball, Guzma grinned; it was time to get out of this cave, because his adventure was only just beginning.

 **A/N: Please remember to give me feedback, thanks!**


	9. Patching Up

Chapter 9: Patching up

The Nurse Joy on Route 2 had just finished fixing the window of the Emergency Room with the help of Chancey when she heard the front door burst open and a familiar, deep voice shout "Nurse Joy? My pokemon needs emergency care!"

It was Bruno again, and as she rushed up the hall with a bed, she thought of all the nasty things she would say to him about sending an injured pokemon into a fight it couldn't win, about how irresponsible he was as a trainer, she would scold him shamefully, and make him promise to let Machop heal, and then only battle easier opponents.

Chancey took Machop from Bruno's arms, and laid the heavily injured pokemon on the medical bed and started rushing the fighting type to the ER.

"I know what you're going to say and I don't want to hear it. Machop was very close to winning and it just needs to try harder, so do your job, heal my pokemon, and don't say a word about it." Bruno stated, staring coldly at the nurse, who suddenly felt very small and a little scared. But then, remembering Machop's injured and pained face unconscious one the bed, an indignant fire flared up inside of her, and she straightened herself up as much as she could, and, still a head shorter than Bruno, she jabbed a finger at his chest and looked him straight in the eye.

"You have no right to do that to your pokemon. If you treated your pokemon like that back in Kanto, where I come from, you'd have your trainer license taken away. How would your father react if he saw you abusing your poor Machop like this?"

"I am **not** my father!" Bruno screamed at her, terrifying rage engulfing his previously calm face. "You will see," he said in a quiet voice, his face returning to the stoic, calm scowl it normally carried, "Everyone will see that I am not my father, and I will not grow weak like him. _This_ is how I train my pokemon, and you cannot do anything about it. Now, I hope to leave here before tomorrow with a healthy pokemon so we can continue training, and we will most likely return in a similar situation. You are the nurse, please do your job."

"I... I won't." Nurse Joy replied, her voice faltering from a mixture of fear and shock. "I won't heal Machop unless you promise to treat it better."

"This is the best for Machop, ultimately. If you refuse to help us, then I will go to a farther Pokemon Center and Machop will suffer more after it's training because of your supposed righteousness."

"Hmph!" She shouted, at a loss for words and angry at the muscular, heartless man before her, and she turned around and left, going to get medicines to treat Machop.

.

.

Kukui woke up to sun shining in his face, feeling dry and sticky. He was confused at first, used to waking up in his bed at home, but quickly remembered the events of the previous day and shot up on his feet. He gave himself a quick look over. He had his pants, all the money he had brought with him, and his pokeballs. He saw Litten sleeping by his feet, and the fire he had built had died down to a smolder. He felt like he was missing something, but nothing seemed to be out of place, so...

"Ruff!" A Pokémon jumped on his back, knocking him to the ground, and started attacking his neck with sharp stones.

"Cut that out, ow!" Kukui shouted, pushed away the Pokémon, and got up again. Kukui remembered what he had forgotten; still covered in a sizable layer of mud, it was the other Pokémon he had found hurt with Litten.

"Rock! Ruff ruff!" The Pokémon said, wagging it's tail.

"So you're a Rockruff, huh?" Kukui squinted, his eyesight wasn't great from up close, but his glasses were dreadfully ugly. "Well, I'm glad you're feeling better, but I'm not a very good trainer, my first Pokémon even left me because I blamed him too much for losing our first battle. I'm going to try to apologize, but I don't think you want to be my Pokémon so I'm not going to catch you. So go outside back to your normal life as a wild Pokémon, okay?"

The rockruff ran forwards at Kukui, jumping up onto its back paws, and resting its front paws on Kukui's thighs, tail wagging, tongue out, and a giant smile pasted on its face.

"I mean it, get out!" Kukui shouted, and the Rockruff scampered out of the shallow cave, back outside and out of sight.

"All right Litten, I'm not as stupid as a rhyhorn, I see your ears up, I know you're awake and can hear me. Let's talk about this, I'm... Well..." Kukui sighed. "I'm sorry. Okay? Can we start over together, clean slate?" He looked expectantly at Litten, who hadn't moved yet.

"Well? Can we make up?" Kukui followed up impatiently.

Litten weakly stood up, and started walking out of the cave, not making eye contact with him. Kukui jumped in front of the entrance, cutting Litten off. Litten tried to move around him, or go through the tan boy's legs, but the fit Kukui was too quick for the still weakened tiger cat Pokémon. Litten took a couple of steps back, then jumped up and attacked Kukui's bare chest with a scratch attack.

"Ha!" He shouted, "Bring it Litten, I can take whatever you throw at me. Let it all out!"

A feral glint sparked in Litten's yellow eyes, and it fired off a torrent of ember attacks, each one burning Kukui's skin, leaving black scorch marks.

"Yeeeeow that's hot!" Kukui yelped, but held his ground.

Litten leaped at Kukui again, hitting him with another scratch attack, and Kukui reached around his starter Pokémon, unsure himself whether he was grabbing or hugging Litten, and held the pokemon against his chest.

"I was... wrong, Litten, I told you something that wasn't true." He whispered into his pokemon's ear, "I do want to be the very best, but only if you're at my side. So I'm sorry Litten, I didn't treat you right, but I'm not letting you go now, so, you're sorta stuck with me. Are... Are you willing to be my partner again?" Kukui looked down at Litten, and saw small tears in the fire type's eyes, and his pokemon licked a cut on Kukui's chest caused by it's own claws.

"C'mon Litten, we need to get you to a Pokemon Center, pronto. What happened to you with those Yungoos?" Kukui glanced at the still dirty Litten, holding it with his left arm as he made sure he had all of his belongings before setting out the door; he had his shorts, his cash, his spare pokeballs, and... Litten too.

.

.

Kukui made it to the Pokemon Center in Hau'oli Outskirts, the one by his old school, and quickly shoved his Litten at Nurse Joy.

"Hello, and welcome to the Pokemon Center. Would you like me to restore your pokemon back to perfect health?"

"Uh, yeah." Kukui rolled his eyes, they were required to say that in non-emergency situations.

"Anyway Kukui, how's being a trainer going for you?" Nurse Joy asked, Kukui used to hang around this particular Pokemon Center a lot after Pokemon Trainer's School with many of the other students, so Nurse Joy knew most of them by name.

"Uh fine, I guess. I got off to a bit of a rocky start with Litten, and it's been pretty intense. But yeah, fine." Kukui nodded, shifting his weight onto his left heel, a habit he had picked up when he was hiding information or lying.

Oblivious to the subtle motion, Nurse Joy cracked a smile and changed the subject. "Molayne called for you around an hour ago, why don't you call him back while I take care of Litten?"

Kukui forced a smile on his face, he'd usually love to talk with his best friend, but recent events had gotten him much more enveloped with the welfare of his Pokemon. "Can I call him back once Litten is feeling better?" He asked, unconsciously tilting back on his left heel again.

"Certainly!" Nurse Joy replied with a smile, "The video phone is on the wall over there whenever you want to use it."

The red haired nurse pointed at the far wall, where three green telephones and screens were attached. Kukui grinned, then made his way over to the couches while Nurse Joy took care of his Litten. There were a couple of kids from trainer school around, mostly in the younger grades, and Kukui didn't really feel interested in talking with any of them; instead, he stared at the clock, watching the seconds tick by before Litten would be fully healed. He reconsidered calling back Molayne now, after all, he didn't need Litten in order to make a phone call. This was just boring down time, and it was really only rational, he thought to himself, to cool down by taking with his friend, after all, worrying never helped anyone, right? Kukui found himself walking over to the video phones, and checking the call history to find the Pokemon Center Molayne called from, and called back.

Molayne answered on the other end after a couple of moments, his glasses tilted haphazardly to the right, and blonde hair even more unkempt than usual.

"Hey Kukui, how have you been?" Molayne's face on the screen asked, getting slightly bigger as he leaned a bit closer to the camera.

"Really going great," Kukui chuckled, nervously scratching the back of his head, running his fingers through his short, dark brown hair, "How have things been going by you? You said goodbye to your folks, right, so how did they take it?"

"They were cool with it, they just needed to give me my asthma stuff." Molayne replied, his face ever so slightly flushed as he spoke. Kukui smirked inwardly, when Molayne's face got pink like that when he was hiding something, and Kukui presumed that he had a huge, sloppy-teared goodbye from his overprotective parents, worried that his asthma would somehow be a problem.

On the other end, Kukui saw Magnemite zooming around the pokemon center with glee behind Molayne's head, flying in and out of the camera's vision cheerfully.

"What's Magnemite doing?" Kukui asked, confused by the odd behavior from the magnet pokemon.

"Oh!" Molayne laughed, "Magnemite is flirting with the video phone, Nurse Joy says that it isn't uncommon for Magnemite to do that. I mean, all pokemon have their quirks, right? Does Litten do any stuff like that? I mean, what happened to you? You're all cut up!"

"Fighting with its trainer on the first day." Kukui thought silently to himself, but then answered, "Nah, not that I know of, Litten and I were just having some fun, that's all."

"How's Litten doing anyway? I don't see it in the background." Molayne asked, looking at Kukui expectantly.

"Litten got pretty hurt, so Nurse Joy is taking care of it, I'm sure the little guy will be okay though, so there's no need to sit around worrying." to avoid the uncomfortable subject, Kukui quickly switched the subject. "Do you know how Bruno is doing?"

Molayne shook his head. "I haven't heard from Bruno, but I'm sure he's training really hard to take on his father's trial. That's probably what I'm going to be doing as well for a while, training with Magnemite so it can get stronger and learn new attacks that can help against Hala, so I'm not sure when I'll get to Ten Carat Hill, but we'll stay in touch, right?"

"Right." Kukui replied, envisioning the eventual battle, determined to win.

Just then, Kukui heard Nurse Joy over the loudspeaker. "Kukui, your Litten is fully healed, please come to the front desk to pick it up. Thank you!"

"That's my cue," Kukui chucked, "Gotta go, nice talking with you!" and hung up before Molayne could even reply.

Kukui took Litten's pokeball from Nurse Joy, thanked her, and left the pokemon center.  
"Come on out Litten!" Kukui shouted sending out his now healed pokemon.

"Lit." Litten responded, looking up in concern Kukui's cut and burned chest.

"Oh, I'm fine," Kukui grinned, picking Litten up and placing the tiger cat pokemon on his shoulder, "You're gonna have to get stronger before you'll do real damage." the tan teenager looked at his pokemon jokingly, "I'm Kukui the invincible! Nothing can hurt me!" and Litten laughed, playfully swatting at his face, and the duo set out once more, ready to take on the world.

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 **Please review, all feedback helps my writing improve, thank you!**


	10. New Place, New Names

**A/N: Chapter 10 is up, thank you to all who have favorited and reviewed, it really gives me the juice to keep writing, I couldn't have done it without you. Feedback from multiple sources not only improves the quality of the story, it helps me see where readers are holding. So when you finish reading this chapter, I'd love to hear who your favorite character is!**

 **-RadBattery**

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Chapter 10: New Place, New Name

"Remind me again," 04AR0N scowled, "why I agreed to go to this godforsaken wasteland with you?"

The human world was nothing like 01L1E had imagined it. It was dark and damp, with cave walls reminiscent of the buildings from home, but without the glowing crystals to light up the planet, leaving the human world dark and dreary.

"If I wasn't a steel type and immune to your toxins," 04AR0N continued to gripe, "I would have thought that you used them on me to convince me to come."

"You came because the Government forced you to." 01L1E replied, trying to ignore her friend's complaining.

"Because _you_ asked them to force me."

"You were excited at first."

"Yeah, we got to use the red chain shards; those things are a one-way ticket between worlds, but even though I knew the human world was terrible I didn't think it would be this boring too."

"Well maybe it wouldn't be that boring if you actually looked at the map I gave you and directed us to the Oracle!"

01L1E spun back around to 04AR0N, increasingly annoyed by how their quest in the human world had begun; getting lost.

"Listen, I'm not the one who wanted to come here in the first place," 04AR0N retorted, jabbing his paper thin, swordlike arm out to the side. "You dragged me out here with you, into the human world, because of your romanticized daydreaming about traveling here, to a literal hell hole teeming with pokemon. Even the air burns my throat!" He was right, the air in the human world felt almost acidic, and it hurt a little to breathe. "And anyway," 04AR0N continued, "the map has holes in it."

"What?" 01L1E, quickly flew behind him to look at the map. Sure enough, the map she had given him had long, thin cuts running up and down the paper that weren't there before, that looked like they had been made by... Kartana blades.

"You lake dweller!" she shouted at him, a common insult back in Ultra Space, "You cut the map with your hands, can't I trust you with anything?" 01L1E grabbed the map out of his swordlike limbs and looked it over, trying to make sense of the remaining pieces. With one of her tentacles not holding the map, she unzipped her carrying tube and took out a dimly glowing, bright blue, smooth sphere around the size of a coconut and tossed it back towards 04AR0N.

"Whoa!" he shouted, grasping the ball with both hands, "This is a communication orb! Only the highest officiating Ultra Beasts get these, and you can use them to talk with anybody else who has one, even from another dimension, and they also contain a bunch of preloaded information about all sorts of useful stuff. How did you get your tentacles on one of these?"

"Feeling better now, huh? The Emperor gave it to me so that we can update him about our progress. We've suddenly become important, you know." 01L1E's mood lightened a bit. "From your knowledge about it, I take it you can operate the orb, and not cut it to pieces?" She teased her old friend, figuring out from the remains of the map the general direction to the rendezvous with the Oracle.

"We should turn right here, I think" 01L1E motioned to a narrow crevice that she wouldn't have noticed without the tattered map. 04AR0N followed, absorbed in his tinkering with the communication orb, mumbling and musing in a voice too low to hear, presumably about the blue glassy ball that was capturing the fullness of his attention.

The duo continued down the tunnel in the cave, following the map until 01L1E realized that they were approaching a hole in the map, and through the dim light from the orb, the young Nihilego despairingly saw that it was a dead end.

"Great 04AR0N, we can't get past without instructions from the map, and you managed to cut said instructions out. Now what?" 01L1E groaned, crossing her tentacles across her chest.

04AR0N looked up, and without missing a beat, he replied nonchalantly, "Why don't we call the Oracle and ask him for directions? He's listed under the communication orb's contacts."

"Seriously?" 01L1E looked at the goofy Kartana with disbelief. "Well, what are you waiting for? I'm sick of being lost like this, call him!"

04AR0N grinned, sliding his thin arm over the surface of the sphere in a variety of quick and complicated motions, impossible for her eyes to follow.

"Oracle? Hello, this is 04AR0N from the 128th freedom mission, my partner and I are supposed to meet you soon but she lost significant pieces of the map and we cannot find our way to you, can you help us? We are in a dead end at the end of a narrow passage."

01L1E grew red in the face, 04AR0N's jokes were going too far, the last thing she wanted was to have the Oracle think badly of her, especially for something she didn't even do.

"Hit the rock on the lower left with Nihilego toxins," 04AR0N whispered, "that should open a secret door, the Oracle is just a bit farther down the secret tunnel, she says that everything else that she says must be in person."

01L1E squirted some of her potent acid at the unassuming rock, and even though she knew what was going to happen, she still jumped a little higher in the air when a trapdoor opened up beneath where she was floating, leading on into an even darker tunnel below. 01L1E clutched her carrying tube tightly and ventured inside, 04AR0N following close behind, the only source of light the dimly glowing communication orb. After around a minute, the two Ultra Beasts bumped into a second dead end.

"Where's the Oracle?" 01L1E asked, feeling the wall for another keystone or switch for an additional secret passage.

"I'm over here," a trancelike voice came from the right wall of the passage. "Hello there, glad to meet you."

"Eep!" 01L1E whirled around, and saw a giant metal body, towering over them and lodged mostly into the cave, save a dress-shaped metal shape leading up to a thin neck and a small head. The great Oracle 04K, the strongest Celesteela from Ultra Space, was literally embedded in the wall of the Human World.

"There's no need to be afraid," The Oracle spoke in a voice that almost sounded like she was dreaming, or very far away. "Many many years ago I fought with Solgaleo, scourge of this world and traitor of ours. He led me to this cave as we fought, a place devoid of soil with nutrients that I need for fuel to fly and move, then baited me into using up my remaining fuel with my flamethrower attack. When I was defenceless, the traitor hit me with what should have been a fatal blow, a full-strength Sunsteel Strike, were it not for a special totem given to me by a human, a focus band. With this I endured, and while my enemy left me for dead, I slowly recovered, and despite not being able to move, I began to expand my mind. Very soon, I was appointed Oracle by the great Emperor Guzzlord, and now I am in charge of everything concerning the world of humans." The Oracle stopped, seeing the awe on the faces of the two smaller Ultra Beasts.

"You fought with Solgaleo? But how?" 04AR0N stammered, looking at the Celesteela with new respect.

"That is a story for a different time," Oracle 04K smiled, and stared at the cave wall opposite herself, past 01L1E and 04AR0N.

"From being here, you will understand how amazing humans are, and any information you would give to the Emperor you should tell me, and I shall relay the information to him myself. In fact, because of my love for the human race, many ultra beasts affectionately refer to me as 'The Humanity Oracle'. This world is inhabited far and wide by these humans. In fact, while the objective of the freedom missions has not been lost, a culture of Ultra Beasts secretly interacting with Human World has grown. For some Ultra Beasts, humans are petlike friends, others use them as powerful tools in battling to achieve their own desires." Oracle 04K looked back at the two, newly immersed in the Human World.

"As for myself... I study humans now as a profession."

"Whoa..." 01L1E was at a loss for words, still feeling as if she were still dreaming about coming to the Human World, not actually inside it.

"But enough about me," 04K laughed, "why don't you tell me a little about yourselves. Let's start with your names, what are they?"

"Well, my name is 01L1E, and this is my friend, 04AR0N." 01L1E replied timidly, but the Oracle burst out laughing.

"I forgot to tell you," she explained, "In the Human World, our names from Ultra Space are foreign and scary to them, so we always try to translate our names into human speak while we are here in their world.

"But how can we do that," 04AR0N asked, "Our names don't carry any significance, they're ID, 04A means I'm a Kartana, and R0N is my individual code. Identification can't be translated."

"Well then let me show you," the Oracle smiled, "Carve your name into the rock over there," the Celesteela motioned to flat stone that had seen many carvings in it before, and 04AR0N complied.

"You too young Nihilego, draw your name with your poisons."

The two complied then took a step back expectantly.

"You see, your names are actually quite easy." The Oracle mused, looking at the rock.

"04AR0N, you shall henceforth be known in the human world as Aaron, it's quite a popular name amongst humans."

"Cool!" Aaron looked himself over, as if getting a human name would have changed his physical appearance.

"And as for you, young one," the Oracle stared at 01L1E with soft eyes.

"Lillie..." The wizened Celesteela mulled, "No no. Your name in the human world, from this point onward, is Ollie. Yes, that fits much better."

Ollie looked up at the towering steel type, her face glowing. "Thank you... Thank you so much! I love my new name!"

"Well then it's settled." the Oracle took a deep breath.

"Ollie! Aaron! Your very own legend is about to unfold! The time has come for you to leave this cave, we will stay in touch via communication orb... A world of dreams and adventures with humans awaits! Now go!"

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 **A/N: Every review means a lot to me, and tell me who your favorite character is!**

 **-RadBattery**


	11. The Crack of Dawn

**A/N: Hey guys, everyone's continued support by reading and reviewing really keeps me going, I'd just like to thank you all for that. Last chapter, the Oracle ripped her speech at the end of the chapter from a certain well known character in the pokemon franchise, if you can figure out whose PM me for a prize of some sort.**

 **But first, enjoy the latest chapter, and please follow, favorite, and leave me feedback.**

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Chapter 11: The Crack of Dawn

"Caterpie, use tackle!"

"Litten, finish it off with an ember!"

Caterpie, hit by the super effective attack, fainted.

"Woo! We won again Litten, that's four in a row!" Kukui rushed forward and scooped up the fire type.

"You tried your best Caterpie," the youngster Kukui had beaten returned his Caterpie to its pokeball. "and that's what counts."

The youngster looked up at the celebrating Kukui. "That was a good match, your Litten is really strong!"

"Thanks, your Caterpie..." Kukui tried to think of a compliment for the weak pokemon. "Is a very nice color green!"

The young trainer's smile sagged a little.

"Hey buddy," Kukui motioned to the kid's pockets.

"Oh right." The youngster took out a fistful of pokedollars and handed them to Kukui.

Kukui put the money in his pocket and quickly turned around to keep walking, trying his hardest to avoid an awkward silence. Kukui turned to Litten, who was walking alongside him.

"I gotta pay for potions somehow, right?"

"Ten ten." Litten nodded.

Out of the corner of his eye, Kukui saw a white tail disappear into a nearby bush. It was odd, that was actually the third time he'd seen that tail, but he just couldn't place his finger on what pokemon it belonged to.

He took out the money he had saved up from his pockets, counting it in his head.

"I'm not gonna buy pokeballs just yet. I got five spare from Hala, but I don't think I'm going to catch any more Pokémon yet. I mean, I need to train with you, right Litten?"

Litten scratched at the dust silently as they walked.

"Ah Litten, I knew you would agree."

Kukui took out a map.

"Okay Litten, seems like we've battled our way up Route 1, cut through Hau'oli City to move on to Route 2, and we should be getting to the Verdant Cavern Pokémon Center right about... Now."

Kukui looked up, and sure enough, there was the Pokémon Center, where Litten could get a proper rest after four battles in a row. Kukui stood in front of the automatic doors, and they opened to show a familiar face on the other side.

"Bruno?" Kukui took a step back, surprised by the unsmiling giant.

"You're not the only one who uses the Pokemon Center you know. Machop will be healed in around two hours, so I'm going to gather some berries for our next training session." Bruno pushed Kukui aside and started walking away.

"Hey!" Kukui shouted, "Bruno! When Litten and Machop are healed, lets battle!"

"Fine." Bruno didn't even turn back around. "Right outside the Pokémon Center here, so when you lose you can heal back up."

"You better watch out Bruno, I'm on a hot streak!" Kukui called back. "Isn't that right Litten?"

"Lit lit!"

Kukui walked into the Pokemon Center. When he took out Litten's pokeball to hand it to her, she opened her mouth to speak, but Kukui knew what was coming.

"Yeah, yeah, hello, thank you for welcoming me to the Pokemon Center, I would love it if you could restore my pokemon to full health." Kukui mimicked the Nurse Joy from the Hau'oli Outskirts' voice as best as he could.

"Actually, I had forgotten I was supposed to say that..." Nurse Joy looked down at the floor. "You're a friend of Bruno's right?"

"Oh..." Kukui looked at Nurse Joy, she was younger than most nurses, probably around his age, maybe even sixteen. He could tell something was bothering her.

"Yeah, Bruno and I grew up together. What's up?"

The nurse looked at Kukui, and mustered a weak smile. "Why don't we talk while I take care of Litten?"

"That would be great." Kukui grinned sheepishly.

Nurse Joy took Litten's pokeball and started walking down a hall.

"Bruno showed up a couple of days ago, only a day after I started looking after this pokemon center. He had brought his Machop, who was badly hurt from battling pokemon that were much too strong. I took in Machop to heal it, and a couple hours later Machop and Bruno took off through a window. Every time, Machop would show back up less than twelve hours later, in Bruno's arms, seriously injured. I... I tried to get Bruno to stop putting Machop through this, but he..." Nurse Joy looked down at the floor again.

"He wouldn't listen." Kukui finished for her, nodding knowingly.

The young nurse started administering all sorts of spray medicine and poultices to Litten as she kept talking.

"But then, a strange thing happened. Machop was growing stronger, even through all the abuse it was taking. It... Seemed to harbor no hard feelings towards Bruno. Truthfully, I think my Chancey and I were more worked up about Bruno's training style than Machop was. Does that make any sense?"

"Oh yeah," Kukui acknowledged, "Machop tend to be pokemon who are proud of their strength. Hala told me that."

"How could such a good man like Hala raise a son who's so cruel?" Nurse Joy blurted, and Kukui saw tears welling up in her eyes.

Silence hung in the air like a thick fog.

After what seemed to be an eternity, Kukui spoke.

"Bruno does things his own way. His pokemon should catch on quickly."

"But he's so terrible... I just don't see how any pokemon could handle being around him, let alone train for him. He's too mean!"

"Did he hurt you?"

The question surprised Nurse Joy. There was another pause before she answered.

"He scared me. I thought he was going to hurt me, but... he didn't."

Kukui exhaled. "I'm sorry you had to see that side of Bruno."

"He's not usually like that?" Nurse Joy asked, wiping away unshed tears.

"Oh he is," Kukui grinned, "but every once in awhile he lightens up a teeny bit. I guess I forgot to say that."

Nurse Joy laughed, resting her hand against the bed Litten was napping on, waking up the grumpy cat pokemon.

"Oh I'm sorry, we should let you rest." She stated, and quickly laid a blanket over Litten and motioned for Kukui to follow her out.

As they walked back to the front of the center, Nurse Joy looked back at Kukui.

"I'm sorry I dumped all of this on you, we only just met, I shouldn't have acted like that. I... I don't even know your name."

"Kukui."

"Amy."

"Wait..." Kukui stopped walking. "Your name isn't 'Nurse Joy?'"

Amy laughed. "We all get called Joy to make things easier for trainers, but we have our own real names too."

"That's so weird! But that means all the Nurse Joys that I've met, have all not been named... Joy?"

"That's right!" Amy smiled, putting her fingers over her lips to stifle a giggle.

"That's going to take some time to wrap my head around." Kukui sat down in one of the couches in the Pokemon Center lobby.

"Thanks for taking care of Litten too, Amy. Bruno and I are actually going to battle real soon, so I'm going to need Litten to be healthy."

Amy threw her hands in the air.

"Machop! I forgot to check in with Chancey about Machop!"

Amy rushed back into the emergency room, leaving Kukui alone to ponder his encounter with the friendly Nurse Joy... Amy.

.

.

Guzma and Wimpod were running away from that darn stubborn Pinsir again, who had found them while they were searching for a way out of the cave. Luckily, it seemed like the Zubat had lost interest in them ever since that weird blue jellyfish creature touched his forehead. Not only was it effective Zubat repellent though, every time he rubbed the spot, he felt a burst of energy, like he wanted to crush rocks with his bare hands and reduce them to dust. He rubbed the spot again, looking back at the enraged Pinsir chasing them.

"C'mon Pinsir, give us a break, you're never going to cat-"

Guzma's taunts were cut off by Pinsir flinging a rock the size of a grapefruit at Guzma and Wimpod with it's huge pincers, and the stone whizzed by Guzma's head and straight off a cliff into a small stream below.

"Uh oh."

Guzma started running full speed, frantically scanning the area for something to protect himself with.

"Rocks, rocks, and more rocks." he muttered, terribly aware that Pinsir had picked up another stone to chuck at him.

"Wait a sec Wimpod," Guzma saw a small cave in the cliff wall, feeling an odd sense of familiarity with his plan, forcing a smile as he remembered how it had turned out.

"Pod-pod Wim..." Wimpod shook his head, not wanting to reenact all of the tumultuous memories of hiding in a cave like that.

"It'll be different this time, no Zubats, remember?" Guzma consoled his new pokemon, scooping it up into his arms.

Pinsir launched the second rock, and Guzma needed to throw himself out of the way to dodge it, watching it streak through the spot where his back was seconds ago.

He nodded at Wimpod, and began climbing down the cliff face, finding familiar footholds and experiencing extreme deja vu.

Pinsir, who was overjoyed at first when he saw that his two targets had stopped running away in the opposite direction, returned to his sour and raging demeanor when he realized that the two had gone somewhere he couldn't follow; down the cliff wall. Spiteful and stubborn, Pinsir sat down on the path right on top of the cliff, ready to wait out the two thieves until they tried to come back up.

Guzma looked at Wimpod, worry in his eyes.

"What're we gonna do, Wimpod? We can't shake that Pinsir."

"Pod! Pod!" Wimpod called, scratching at a grouping of rocks, and Guzma noticed a glassy purple gleam.

"My smoke ball! Nice find Wimpod!" He picked it up, the glass had some serious cracks in it, but it was all in one piece, and something dawned on Guzma.

"Hey... This little cave probably feels so familiar because... This is the cave we were in yesterday."

Looking around confirmed his suspicions, the rocks on the floor of the nook in the wall had droplets of blood on them from yesterday's Zubat attacks.

"Wimpod, I think I know the way out!" Guzma exclaimed, and then leaned down and began to whisper his plan to the bug and water type...

"Okay Wimpod, now!" Guzma whispered, excitement permeating his voice.

"Pod!" Wimpod activated the smoke ball, letting white smoke billow into the air, surrounding them and Pinsir above. Quickly, the pair scaled up the rocky wall and escaped right past Pinsir, who unknowingly was still waiting for them by the edge.

"I know the way out from here, I can retrace my steps from when I came in, now that I know where we are." Guzma said in a hushed voice.

"Pod, wim pod-pod!" Wimpod cried.

"But first," Guzma smirked, a mischievous smile growing on his face, "we have an opportunity here."

Still shrouded in the white smoke, Guzma and Wimpod crept back towards Pinsir, who was standing on the cliff's edge, unaware that his two targets had already passed by him, and were now right behind him. Guzma rubbed his forehead for a little energy boost, nodded at Wimpod, and Guzma rammed into Pinsir's back with his shoulder, while Wimpod hit it with a Struggle Bug attack.

The combined forces pushed Pinsir off the edge, sending the Scab beetle pokemon down the cliff and into the water below with a satisfying splash.

"And next time, pick on someone your own size, you big bug bully!" Guzma shouted down as the smoke cleared.

"Pod wim-pod!" Wimpod agreed, scuttling up Guzma's side up onto his shoulder.

"C'mon Wimpod, if we go down that tunnel, we should get back out."

Guzma started strolling down the cave, finally letting himself feel the accumulated exhaustion from the past day.

"Past day," Guzma muttered, "it's felt like ages, hasn't it Wimpod?"

"Pod wim pod." Wimpod agreed, nodding.

"Hey why was that Pinsir chasing you anyway? It seemed pretty dedicated to catching us..." Guzma asked, kicking a pebble down the rocky cave path.

"Pod pod..." Wimpod's face turned red with embarrassment and looked down.

"Awww Wimpod, it's ok, what'd you take from it?" Guzma smiled, stroking Wimpod's back, running his fingers up and down the spots where the Turn Tail pokemon's armor plates meet.

Blushing, Wimpod took out a smooth, glassy crystal and sheepishly presented it to Guzma. It was a deep and brilliant sky blue, like the morning heavens before the sun peeks over the horizon. The stone was oval shaped, with a periwinkle star inside it, and it sparkled a little like a glittering eye.

"Whoa Wimpod..." Guzma handed the gem back to Wimpod, but the bug type pushed it back with a small claw.

"Pod pod!" Wimpod shouted indignantly.

"You want me to keep it?" Guzma held out his hand once more, trying to get Wimpod to take back the precious item.

"Pod-wim pod pod!" Wimpod hit away Guzma's hand with its tail.

"Even though you went through all the trouble stealing it from Pinsir, you want to give it to me?"

Wimpod nodded, and smiled up at his new trainer.

"Fine then." Guzma nodded, "I'll hold onto it, but it belongs to you too. It'll be a lucky charm for us, 'cause it brought us together, and that was lucky."

Guzma grinned, then held the glassy stone in the air like a chalice.

"I propose a toast... to us!"

"Wim pod pod!"

* * *

 **A/N: There's going to be much more Guzma in the coming chapters, in the future I'm going to edit the order a bit to make sure that everything fits more evenly. Is there any character you would like to see more of?  
** **I hoped you enjoyed reading, please review!**


	12. Home Sweet Home

**A/N: First off, congratulations to "Ya boy Guzma" on figuring out the inspiration for Oracle 04K's speech, it was the opening piece Professor Oak tells the player when starting Red or Blue.**

 **BossSalamence: Bruno is playing a large role as the son of Hala, a man who has a grandson that plays a pivotal role in Sun and Moon. I'll leave it to the readers to connect the dots from there.**

 **Thank you all for reading, following/favoriting, and leaving reviews! I hope you enjoy this latest installment...**

* * *

Chapter 12: Home Sweet Home

"It's a good thing we didn't stay in the cave any longer, huh Wimpod?" Guzma chuckled.

The stuff on his forehead had worn off, and near the exit they were catching the attention of some unfriendly zubat. The sun was setting, but they were back in the meadow with yellow flowers and sneeze-inducing Cutiefly, and Guzma scooped up Wimpod and held the pokemon close to his chest.

"I gotta take you back to see my parents, and then we can go on a journey together! I... I'll beat Hala, and then we can get strong enough to take on Puna!" Guzma smiled, heading back through the short tunnel to get to Route 3.

"Pod?" Wimpod wriggled a little bit in Guzma's arms, finding a comfortable spot.

"Puna is the greatest Pokémon trainer I've ever seen, she's strong and smart and has this reeeeeaally nice Ariados!"

"Wim..." Wimpod jumped out of Guzma's arms and scuttled over to a nest in a rocky wall.

"Pod! Pod!"

"What's up bud? What's in the nest?"

Guzma peered into the nest, there were three pokemon eggs and a pearl among the sticks.

"You have a thing for shiny stuff, huh?" Guzma picked up Wimpod and held him high enough to reach the nest. As Wimpod was rustling around in the nest for the pearl, Guzma heard the sound of eggshells cracking.

"Hey Wimpod, don't hurt any of the eggs, kay?"

"Pod!" Something had thrown Wimpod out of the nest and then peered over the edge with small red beady eyes.

"Vul-vula by!"

"Ahhhh! Wimpod, let's get outta here!" Guzma and Wimpod took off, and Guzma released a cloud of smoke from his damaged smoke ball.

The two kept on running in the moonlight till they reached a small house outside of Hau'oli City with a small backyard behind it.

"Well Wimpod," Guzma panted, "This is the place. My home in the Alola region."

"Pod..." Wimpod looked at the house and shifted a little closer to Guzma.

"Don't worry Wimpod, my parents are nice. We'll just stop by, I'll tell them we're going on a journey together, maybe spend the night, and we will be on our way. How does that sound?"

"Pod wim pod!" Wimpod jumped into the air, curling his tail up to touch his nose in midair.

Guzma opened the door, and a gastly jumped out at them with an astonish.

"POD!" Wimpod turned around and promptly began to run as far away from the house as he could, and were it not for Guzma grabbing onto it's tail, he probably would have.

"What's the big idea, Gastly?" Guzma walked right through Gastly's immaterial form, dragging a terrified and whimpering Wimpod behind him.

"Guzma!" His father's voice called, "Sorry about Gastly, whenever someone comes in without knocking Gastly tries to scare them away, just in case it's Team Rocket."

Alexander returned his gastly to its pokeball and looked at Guzma in horror.

"Guzma, what happened to you?" his mother rushed out and hugged her child, running her hands over his cuts, bruises, and zubat bites that blanketed his skin.

"My thoughts exactly Guzma," Alexander said in a stern voice, "You were supposed to go up to Verdant Cavern, catch a pokemon, and come right back. You look like you got hit by a golem's stone edge, what happened?"

"Well," Guzma looked down at Wimpod, held upside down by its tail behind Guzma. "it's a long story, but I did catch a pokemon." Guzma looked up at his parents and smiled.

They did not smile back.

"Let's take this to the dining room, we have a guest today Guzma."

Guzma peered into the dining room to see a middle-aged man with jet black hair sitting at the table.

"Hello there!" the man laughed, "my name is Hala, and I'm a Trial Captain here on Melemele Island. When I heard from Nanu that there was a new family from Kanto, I just had to drop by and welcome you to Alola! Your parents are wonderful people, and I take it from our conversation that you are Guzma!"

"Y-yeah." Guzma sat down in a vacant chair, his parents on either side of him.

"Well my boy, it's good to meet you. My wife baked some malasadas to welcome you to the Alola Region." Hala motioned to a plate of pastries on the table. "So help yourself if you want some!"

"Mom, Dad," Guzma looked up at his parents. "I wanna go on a journey to clear the Island Challenge. Hala is the first Captain I need to beat, actually."

Violette and Alexander looked at each other.

"Absolutely not." they answered in unison.

"Whaddya mean, no?" Guzma's jaw dropped. "I need this!"

"Have you seen yourself?" Violette exclaimed, "After only one day away from home, you look worse than when that raticate broke your arm! Wait till you're eighteen, then you can leave, okay?"

"Anyway," Alexander added, "They have a very nice trainers school you can attend till then."

Guzma clutched his left arm defensively. "B-but I have a pokemon! I'm ready!"

"Well..." Violette trailed off, "If you have a big, strong pokemon that can protect you, maybe we'd consider it. Let's see what pokemon you caught."

Guzma pulled out Wimpod from behind him and dropped him on the dining room table.

"Pod... Pod... Pod..." Wimpod wheezed, still shell-shocked from Gastly's astonish, coupled with being dragged around by it's tail by Guzma.

"Oh dear," Hala whispered, watching the sorry events unfold.

"There are over eight _hundred_ pokemon..." Violette shook her head. "And you chose a traumatized rat bug?"

"Its name is Wimpod," Guzma retorted sourly, "and he's an amazing pokemon, just having a bad moment."

"Fine then," Alexander sighed, "You and your Alolan Wimp-whatnot can go on a journey when you're eighteen. Until then, your mother made a wonderful soup for dinner, and we have a guest. I'll speak with the trainer school in the morning, this is the **end** of this discussion."

Wimpod scampered off the table into Guzma's lap.

"Y-yes Dad." Guzma hung his head low, petting Wimpod as Violette passed out bowls of aromatic soup.

"This soup is wonderful!" Hala exclaimed, "Is this a recipe from Kanto? The flavors are intriguing and wonderful, and the different vegetables are fun to eat! You must tell my wife how to make this!"

"Oh, you flatter me." Violette smiled, and it seemed like everyone but Guzma had forgotten about the previous conversation.

"Please, give it to my wife, my kids would love it." Hala grinned. "You know, I have a son around Guzma's age, his name is Bruno."

Hala took out a photo from his pocket, it showed Hala with his wife and two children.

"The one on the left is Bruno," Hala explained, pointing at a hulking teen, "And on the right is Brawly, his younger brother."

In the picture, Hala and Brawly both had wide grins, Hala's wife was smiling warmly, and Bruno was frowning slightly, looking straight into the camera with a death stare.

"I see from your faces that you noticed that Bruno's the odd one out," Hala joked, "He may not be a chip off the old block like Brawly, but he's a good kid, that's for sure."

"Hala's son, will be on a journey, why can't I?" Guzma blurted, his voice quivering.

"You see Bruno," Alexander shook his head. "He can look after himself, he's strong. Our family isn't, and we need to stay safe. There is no conversation to be had here Guzma, we are doing what's best for you."

"I'm not hungry anymore, I can find my own room." Guzma scowled, "G'night Mom, Dad, and uh, nice meeting you Hala."

Guzma found the only vacant bedroom, it was small, with two mattresses stacked on top of one another as a bed, and a suitcase of personal belongings in the corner. He put down Wimpod at the front of the bed and looked out the only window in his room.

"I-I'm sorry Wimpod, I thought we could have our journey together..." Guzma looked up at the moon, despair filling his voice.

"Pod..." Wimpod jumped off the bed and scampered up the windowsill next to Guzma.

The two stared out at the moon, lost in thought, unaware that time was passing, save the silent tears dropping off Guzma's face onto Wimpod's back. There would be no adventure, he would not return to Puna for another three years, minimum. Who even knows what the future would hold? He might never go on a journey at all.

Guzma jumped when he heard a soft knock at the door, and Wimpod hid behind Guzma's leg.

"Am I interrupting something?" It was Hala's voice, but it sounded older than it did before, showing no traces of the jolly laughter and bounce that Guzma was used to hearing from the middle-aged man.

"N-no..." Guzma choked out, trying to hide his tears, "What do you want?"

"Well my boy," Hala spoke softly, his voice a little gravelly, "I asked your parents if I could stay the night, and they said I should stay with you. Of course, I could have gone home easily, but I wanted to talk with you, Guzma."

For some reason hearing his name spoken like that made Guzma shudder.

"What is it?" Guzma's voice was quavering, "All my hopes, my dreams, all this time running away from danger in Kanto..."

Guzma had to pause to keep himself from crying.

"I spent my life dreaming of a peaceful place where I was free. Free to feel the sun on my face, free to enjoy the day without having to worry what was behind me, free to journey for myself, free to run towards something, not away from dangers."

Hala nodded, resting his hand on the short teen's shoulder and escorting him over to the bed.

"When I got to Alola, I thought I had found all of those things. But now..."

Guzma sat down on the mattress and broke down in tears.

"Looks like I'll be cooped up here for the next three years, then I'll get a job, and I'll never be able to have that journey, never fulfill my dream."

"Let an old man tell you a bit about my job as a Trial Captain." Hala stroked his black mustache, nodding as he spoke.

"Even young trainers from other islands tend to start off their journeys on Melemele Island, and that makes my trial the first one that they'll face. I try to set them into the right mindset about their challenge, help them put the right foot forward. While different trainers need to hear different messages, there is one that every trainer must know. The Island Challenge... It isn't something that you finish when you clear. The trials aren't just silly tasks, like finding ingredients or taking pictures. Each Island Trial speaks to a fundamental part of you as the trial goer, and aim to help you grow into a stronger and more responsible trainer, but even more than that, a better person. That get's lost on most trial goers, but I believe that it is the secret to success; you must understand that every challenge you face, especially outside of battle, is its own trial, and you must be able to clear those and move forward to become truly great."

"So everything hard in life," Guzma sniffed, "is a test?"

"That's one way to put it my boy," Hala affirmed, "except at the end of the day, the test is for nobody but yourself. You have great conviction in your eyes Guzma, I'd hate to see it squandered in some office profession."

Hala took one of the two stacked mattresses and lay it down on the ground, and within moments, the black haired Trial Captain was asleep.

"You catch all that Wimpod?" Guzma whispered to the bug clutching his pant leg.

"Wim-pod pod..." Wimpod nodded, climbing up Guzma's clothing to get onto his shoulder.

Guzma tiptoed over to the windowsill, opening the window and looking out at the full moon, a cool night breeze blowing into his room. Guzma took out the light blue stone.

"For luck," Guzma explained and jumped through the window, Wimpod clutching Guzma's shirt as they landed outside below, stealing into the night.

"This is truly a trial, just like Hala said," Guzma murmured, "and I think we just passed."

.

.

"Guzma!" Alexander shouted, "Guzma! Oh Violette, come here!"

Violette rushed into Guzma's room, met with the sight of Guzma gone and the window open.

"Hala," Violette looked at the groggy Trial Captain, still waking up to the shouts by the frantic parents, "When did Guzma leave?"

"Can't say I heard anything, your son is light on his feet." Hala lied, wiping the sleep from his eyes, "However, he can't exactly leave Melemele Island without beating Puna, so why don't you let this be a little experiment? You can see how the boy fares on his own, and if he shows smarts maybe you can let him continue, and if not, he'll be close to home."

"Hmph." Alexander grunted, "You were right about one thing, he can't leave this island just yet. I'll track him down and bring him home, and if we have to get rid of his rat bug to keep him home, we'll do that too. Any objections, Violette?"

Violette shook her head silently.

"Well then Gastly," Alexander smirked, "I'll make breakfast, then we'll set out to catch... our boy, Guzma."

* * *

 **A/N: Well, there you have it! I added some more depth to Hala, as he seemed a bit shallow in the main games, I hope you enjoyed!**

 **If you liked it (or you have constructive criticism) please leave a review, and if you follow/favorite you can get alerts whenever I update the story.**


	13. UncomMohn Friendship

**A/N: Now that this is posted I'm going to be spending some time editing everything so far. After next chapter, the story should really pick up the pace, as I'm not going to be writing about otherwise inconsequential training sessions.**

 **Since there will be a bit of a break (three/four weeks instead of two, probably) between this chapter and the next so I can take time to edit, I wanted to thank Technow, the4elements, Ya Boy Guzma, Boss Salemence, for your helpful reviews, and especially, King Jonas who is beta reading through with me.**

 **Well here goes chapter 13, I hope you enjoy.**

* * *

Chapter 13: UncomMohn Friendship

Guzma awoke with sand in his hair, looking out at the beach off of Route 3, memories of last night rushing back to him.

"Hey Wimpod, c'mon out." Guzma croaked, his throat dry and thirsting for water.

"Pod?" Wimpod looked up at Guzma expectantly, wagging its tail.

"I wanted to thank you for what you did back there, you were great."

"Wim wim…" Wimpod shuddered, Alexander's gastly had caught them sneaking out, and Wimpod had to battle it for a turn until Guzma's smoke ball helped them flee. The gastly's night shade attack didn't hurt anymore, but it left memories that Wimpod couldn't quite shake.

"Well, let's find some weaker pokemon to train against buddy. Soon, you'll be a big and strong…" Guzma had no clue what an Alolan pokemon like Wimpod evolved into.

"Wimpod." Guzma nodded, "A big strong wimpod."

Wimpod smiled weakly, crawling back up onto Guzma's shoulder as he walked out into the tall grass.

"It's a Yungoos!" Guzma shouted, "Go, Wimpod!"

Wimpod hopped down onto the battlefield, facing off against the loitering pokemon.

"Okay Wimpod, start off with sand-attack!"

"Wim!" Wimpod dug its tail into the ground and flung sand into the opposing Yungoos's eyes.

"Yun!" The Yungoos bared it's large and sharp teeth, staring down Wimpod with a feral expression.

"You're doing great Wimpod, this is our first time battling in regular combat. Unlike Pinsir, this pokemon should try to attack back soon!"

Sure enough, the Yungoos lunged at Wimpod with a tackle attack, although not quite on target.

"The sand attack is working, it's accuracy has fallen! Now, hit it with a struggle bug from the back!"

Wimpod used struggle bug and sent Yungoos tumbling into a nearby ditch, out of view.

A silence constricted Guzma's throat, and Wimpod inched forward to peer into the hole.

"Yun!" The Yungoos screeched, leaping out with claws outstretched.

"Pod pod!" Wimpod started running away from the attacking mongoose pokemon, Guzma close behind, activating the smoke ball and letting out a plume of white smoke to hide them.

"Well, we were sorta close," Guzma remarked, shrugging. "Yungoos are nasty."

"Hey there, trainer!" A voice shouted from down the road.

A kid with thick, blue rimmed glasses and blonde hair was waving at them, and Wimpod scampered behind Guzma's left leg, latching itself on the scruffy fabric. Guzma walked over to him, Guzma's hand holding the smoke ball in his pocket.

"My name is Molayne," the lanky boy stretched out his hand with a grin.

"Guzma." Guzma shook Molayne's hand, still clutching the smoke ball in his other palm.

"Well, since we're both trainers, want to battle?" Molayne smiled again, scratching the back of his head.

"Sure!" Guzma nodded and took a step back.

"Go, Magnemite!"

"Let's do this, Wimpod!"

"All right Wimpod, let's start off with a sand attack!"

"Pod!" Wimpod flung sand at the Magnet pokemon, watching it carefully.

"All right Magnemite, use thundershock!"

The weak bolt of electricity arced through the air from Magnemite and hit the spot right next to Wimpod.

"Eek!" Guzma jumped backward as if the shock had almost hit him.

"All right Magnemite, as soon as we hit them we win!" Molayne grinned, pumping his fist in the air.

"Whaddaya mean you win?"

"Well electric type attacks are super effective against a bug and water type pokémon like Wimpod, and Wimpod doesn't really have very good defenses at all."

"But when I lose, I gotta pay you?" Guzma asked with a worried frown.

"Pretty much." Molayne chuckled, "And then maybe we'll meet again and have a rematch later!"

"Uh oh." Guzma took out his smoke ball and shot a puff of smoke onto the battlefield and his opponent, then he and Wimpod turned around and started running off.

"Hey!" Molayne shouted, chasing him, "There's no... running... from a... trainer battle..."

Guzma looked back at the blond haired skinny boy pursuing him, Molayne was panting and gasping for air as he slowed down. His Magnemite was giving him some sort of electric shock, and as Guzma turned a corner he knew he had got away safely.

"Well Wimpod, we seem to be good enough at running, so that should take us far enough, right?"

"Wim wim." Wimpod concurred, smiling a little, and Guzma looked down at his Pokémon with a grin.

 _ **SMACK!**_

Not watching where he was going, Guzma ran straight into the back of a broad shouldered man and they both fell onto the ground, Wimpod ducking into Guzma's pant leg to hide.

Guzma turned around to run away from him too, not wanting to have to endure an angry rant or, what was more likely, another pokemon battle. However, the labcoat-wearing man's hand shot out and grabbed his wrist before he had a chance to get away.

"Hey, it's alright," the man chuckled, turning around to reveal a baby-faced grin, the man couldn't have been older than twenty.

"The name's Mohn, I'm studying to be a pokemon professor! What's the hurry?"

"Uh, nothing." Guzma lied, "Please don't ask me to b-battle you, my name is Guzma and I just s-started my journey."

"Hey, you're that kid with the stutter Lusamine was talking about!" Mohn exclaimed, letting go of Guzma's arm and patting him on the back. Guzma had to look up at Mohn, who was at least a head taller than he was.

Guzma's face turned red from the description. "Y-yeah. You know Lusamine?"

Mohn laughed.

"Know her? I've been with her on our journey since we started traveling!"

Mohn paused a furrow appearing in his brow.

"You said before that you didn't want to battle. Is your pokemon very hurt? While my main focus is pokemon from space, I have a couple potions in my bag if you need some."

Guzma looked down, putting a hand into his pocket and gripping his lucky aquamarine gem.

"No," he mumbled, "we just aren't that strong yet."

Mohn gripped Guzma's shoulder reassuringly.

"Well then, why don't you travel with us for a little while, we can help you out when you get into tricky battles, and practice with you to help you get stronger."

Guzma nodded eagerly, smiling with delight.

"T-thank you, that sounds really nice."

"Then come with me," Mohn grinned, his short blond hair glinting in the sunlight as he pointed down the road.

"That's where I set up camp, and where all of my research equipment is too. I gotta bring these rocks back to study them anyway, so I'm not going out of my way."

As they started walking, Guzma's adrenaline subsided, and a thought struck him like a thunderbolt.

"Wait," Guzma narrowed his eyes, "did you say you s-study alien pokemon?"

"That's right," Mohn nodded, a chunk of blond hair in front bobbing, "like my buddy, Solrock, or clefairy, or starmie."

"Like blue jellyfish creatures that come from portals?" Guzma asked, remembering the strange being that gave him the energy boost the day before.

"What?!"

Mohn stopped walking and whirled around, grabbing Guzma's shoulders and staring him straight in the eye. While his face looked intensely serious, his green eyes were brimming with excitement.

"Where in the world," Mohn asked in a hushed whisper, "did you hear about this entity."

Guzma squirmed, but Mohn's grip felt stronger than iron.

"I saw it," Guzma answered, "it talked to me, left an ooze on my forehead, and left."

"Ha!" Mohn laughed, nearly shouting with a huge grin. "Let's get back as fast as we can, I need you to tell me your whole story somewhere where I can write it all down!"

As Mohn let go of Guzma, a playful smile danced on his face.

"Race you there."

"You're on," Guzma smirked, spinning past Mohn's body and taking off down the road.

"Hey!" Mohn started running after him, but even if they had started at the same time, the fit but not agile Mohn didn't have a ghost of a chance against Guzma's breakneck speed, arriving almost fifteen seconds after Guzma despite the relatively short distance.

"Man," Mohn gasped for air between words, "You're fast. I wonder what kind of fast pokemon is your partner... A Diglett?"

"Nope," Guzma reached down and nonchalantly patted Wimpod's head under his pant leg with a sheepish smile.

"Maybe a more sinister pokemon, like gastly?" Mohn inquired, sitting down to rest at a white foldout table.

"Uh-uh" Guzma shook his head, suppressing a small laugh. His mind invariably floating to memories of his father Alexander's gastly and how much it had frightened Wimpod.

"Ah! I know!" Mohn jumped up out of his chair, white lab coat billowing behind him like a cape, "Both you and your pokemon must have a penchant for shiny objects, as there is something glinting in your pockets. Couple this with amazing speed and local availability, and I'd have to deduce that you've got a...

Meowth!" Mohn finished triumphantly, and Guzma burst out laughing, shoving his blue stone deeper in his pockets.

"No?" Mohn asked, shoulders drooping but stupid grin still pasted on his face.

"Mohn," a familiar feminine voice came from a white and light blue tent, "What's all the racket?"

"Hey Lusamine," Mohn called back, "Your friend from a couple days ago is here, he's seen the alien portals!"

"Oh really?" Lusamine's slender figure emerged from the tent, making her way over to the white table Mohn had sat by.

"Then let him tell you what pokemon he caught. Your guesses are probably way off anyway," Lusamine chuckled.

"All right buddy," Guzma nudged Wimpod, "You can come out now."

"Pod?" Wimpod emerged from behind Guzma, curiously staring at the two new trainers with round eyes.

Both Lusamine's and Mohn's smiles vanished.

"What?" Guzma looked at his two new friends, "D-do you not like my pokemon?"

"No, it's not that," Lusamine said sweetly, "we love your pokemon. Um, Mohn, it's probably just a coincidence."

"Wimpod don't naturally live on Melemele Island, Lusamine." Mohn was nervously wringing his hands, concern occupying his face.

"What are you t-talking about?" Guzma pleaded, "What's wrong?"

"Well," Lusamine started, "you remember how I told you that my boyfriend had lost a pokemon?"

"Isn't Mohn your boyfriend?"

"No," a deep voice behind Guzma retorted, " _I'm_ Lusamine's boyfriend and that Wimpod is _my_ pokemon."

* * *

 **A/N: Who do you all think is Lusamine's real boyfriend? (Hint: His name has already been mentioned) PM me your guesses, and if you're right I'll give you a shiny pokemon in your Sun/Moon game.**

 **If you like the chapter, please follow/favorite for updates as they come out.**

 **Thanks, and stay tuned.**


	14. Where There's a Wimp, There's a Way

**A/N** **: Okay guys, Ive finished editing the first 5 chapters, from here on out they should be easier grammar wise. Big thanks to Shadow Serenity for all the pointers, I'll be adding them in soon.**

 **Also kudos (and a shiny tangrowth) to GGuy12345 who was able to guess Lusamine's boyfriend.**

 **This will be my longest chapter so far, but enjoy!**

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Chapter 14: Where There's a Wimp, There's a Way

"No, _I'm_ Lusamine's boyfriend and that Wimpod is _my_ pokemon."

"Sneasel!"

Guzma spun around, hitting his shoulder against the chest of a blue haired man who looked around eighteen. He glared down at Guzma with piercing blue eyes, his mouth thin and emotionless, and a black sneasel behind him with a predatory grin.

"Hand me that pokeball. I want my pokemon back." The man stated flatly, reaching his hand out.

"Cyrus!" Lusamine shouted, "At least be nice about it!"

She walked over to the man, Cyrus, and put her arms around his shoulder .

"Well Guzma, this is my boyfriend Cyrus, he's from Sinnoh but he's studying here with Mohn about pokemon from other dimensions."

Lusamine swiveled to face Cyrus, and Sneasel stole behind Guzma with silent agility, cutting off his avenue of escape.

"How did Guzma even catch that pokemon anyway?" Lusamine asked, "Pokeballs never work on a pokemon that belongs to someone else."

"I lost Wimpod's egg while exploring Melemele Meadow. It must have hatched without me, so it would be possible for another trainer to catch it, but it's still my pokemon."

"Now," Cyrus nudged Lusamine out of the way, "Give me back my pokemon, kid, it's very rare in Sinnoh and I want to trade it for a strong pokemon when I get back home."

Guzma nervously whirled around to escape, meeting Cyrus's sneasel and outstretched claws.

"You can't run, you thief," Cyrus's voice was getting louder, "hand over the pokeball and you can go home."

Home... Back as a failure after the first day, unable to care for himself, just like his father said.

"You..." Guzma squeaked, "You don't even want to keep Wimpod? You want to trade it away?"

"Sentimental, are you?" Cyrus scoffed, "Any bond that a trainer forms with a weak pokemon is just weakness of emotion in the trainer."

"No..." Guzma whispered, the words barely escaping his mouth, "Wimpod and I are friends, and that makes us strong!"

While his eyes stayed cold, Cyrus started laughing.

"How old are you, seven? Friendship can't make your pokemon strong. Sneasel is my pokemon, not my friend, but we can sure as hell beat you and that bug. Give up, kid, it isn't worth it to see that poor wimpod get hurt."

"Enough!" Mohn shouted, "By official Pokemon League rules of Alola, that wimpod belongs to Guzma. Now, it's clear that you aren't going to let him go, and Guzma can't battle you. But he's seen the alien portals, so I need him to stay happy and in one piece, and I've also promised him I'd help him get stronger. So..."

Mohn took a deep breath and looked up at the afternoon sky.

"I challenge you and Sneasel to a battle against me and my solrock. Winner decides who gets to keep wimpod: you, and Guzma leaves, or Guzma, and he stays and helps me with my research. Deal?"

"But Mohn," Lusamine tugged his lab coat, but Guzma replied as fast as he could.

"I agree."

"Mohn!" Lusamine whispered, glancing at Cyrus, "You've practiced battling against Cyrus countless times, and he always wins, Sneasel is just too strong!"

Cyrus locked eyes with Mohn, a cruel grin painted on his face.

"It's a deal then."

.

.

"This will be a one on one battle between Cyrus and Mohn." Lusamine called, the two having already lined up on opposite sides of the rocky clearing. "I'll be the referee, and therefore the judge of when a pokemon is unable to battle."

"Set 'em straight, Sneasel!"

"I choose you, Solrock!"

Guzma stared from the sideline, Wimpod was in his pokeball in Lusamine's hand. He clenched his knuckles, watching the two pokemon stare each other down, the black, weasel like Sneasel against the rocky, sun shaped Solrock.

"Please Solrock," Guzma whispered, "please win so I can get back Wimpod."

"Sneasel, use scratch!"

"Solrock, harden!"

Sneasel struck Solrock's rough rocky surface, but the attack merely hurt its claw.

"Snea!" Sneasel shouted, jumping back.

"Figures." Cyrus muttered, "You would want to protect your pokemon."

"Now Solrock, fire spin!"

Solrock closed its slitted eyes, and flames converged in a vortex from each rocky point on its body and shot it at Sneasel.

"Dodge that Sneasel."

Sneasel effortlessly jumped out of the way, making a point to yawn loudly at the slow rock type pokemon.

"Now," Cyrus pointed at Solrock, "feint attack."

"Snea!" Sneasel raced forward, but when Solrock tried to block it, it disappeared for a moment, reappearing behind Solrock, attacking the rock and psychic type's undefended side.

"A super effective attack!" Lusamine gasped, and Guzma's hands clenched into fists, his knuckles turning white.

"How are you doing, Solrock, feel ok to keep going?" Mohn asked, his voice steeped in concern.

"Sol!"

"Then try to trap it with fire spin!"

"Always the same, eh Mohn?" Cyrus sighed, "Fine then, dodge that Sneasel, then go in for another feint attack."

Sneasel dodged with ease, and sped toward Solrock, again hitting its vulnerable back.

"Roc!" Solrock exclaimed in pain, why was Mohn having it repeat a strategy that wasn't working?

"Come on Mohn, do we really need to continue?" Cyrus implored, "The Pokemon Center is a fair walk from here. What's it even worth to you, I can make sure the boy tells you his story."

"It's more than that," Mohn grunted through clenched teeth, "I told Guzma I would help him, but not only that, keeping him around will also..."

"Also what?" Lusamine asked, crossing her arms over her chest with suspicion.

"Uh, forget it." Mohn muttered, his eyes locking on the opposing sneasel.

"Rock throw!"

"Dodge it Sneasel!"

Guzma felt like he was watching an instant replay. The slow Solrock used telekinesis to pick up and throw a nearby stone, and the lightning quick Sneasel dodged without a care.

"Now feint attack, again, and again. No mercy!"

"Now time for our secret weapon Solrock!" Mohn shouted, "Use rock polish!"

"Rock polish?" Lusamine gasped, "Even though it doesn't deal damage, rock polish sharply increases a pokemon's speed by reducing drag!"

Guzma watched in worry as Solrock used the move as Sneasel relentlessly attacked with feint attack, dust from the two moves kicking up and obscuring the battling pokemon.

"You gotta hold on Solrock..." Guzma whispered, "You gotta hold on for Wimpod..."

"That's too little, too late, Mohn. Not only is feint attack Sneasel's strongest move, it's also super effective against a psychic type like Solrock... The battle should be over."

 _ **SWOOSH!**_

Solrock, injured and weak, rose out and above of the dust cloud with surprising speed.

"But... How?" Cyrus closed a fist, as if he wanted to punch the rock pokemon himself.

"Solrock, fire spin!"

Solrock launched the vortex of flames in nearly an instant, hitting the already exhausted sneasel and trapping the ice type in the swirling flames.

"Not only does fire spin trap the opponent, lingering and dealing damage over time, that was a super effective attack too!" Lusamine stared out at the battle. "This could go either way!"

"Sneasel, break out of that fire spin!"

Sneasel grimaced, Cyrus was strong, but its trainer could be a bit thickheaded sometimes, it wasn't so simple to escape a fire tornado when you're literally _burning._ Sneasel tried to ignore the pain, run out of the fiery trap, but the flames kept following it, not letting Sneasel go.

"Solrock, rock throw, now's our chance!"

Solrock used telekinesis to pick up a rock and zipped it at the struggling sneasel.

When the flames cleared, Sneasel was as roughed up as Solrock was, panting heavily and grimacing from the volley of attacks.

"Well Mohn, I wasn't expecting rock polish, that's for sure." Cyrus stared intently at the battlefield.

"But we can do away with that, Sneasel, use icy wind!"

The battered sneasel opened its mouth and a rush of cold air with fragmented crystals of ice covered the battlefield and chilled Guzma to the bone.

"H-hey Lusamine?" Guzma looked up at her with worry, "Doesn't icy wind slow down an opponent when it does damage? So Solrock won't be as fast?"

Lusamine nodded.

"It was close, but Cyrus is going to win again..."

She looked down at the boy, at the tears welling in his eyes.

"I'm sorry Guzma, I really am. Mohn tried his best, but there's no way that Solrock can withstand another feint attack, whether it tries to attack or set up another rock polish."

"Okay, now finish it off Sneasel, feint attack!"

Sneasel exhaled, sliding away from the lingering ciders of the fire spin and stealing in and out of view, glad to end the tiresome battle; this was the limit, and more damage and it would collapse.

"Solrock! Harden!"

Solrock looked down in shame. Uselessly raising its own defense was folly, it couldn't take the hit either way. However, the pokemon trusted Mohn, and could feel how important this battle was, so it dutifully followed orders, hardening its rocky skin.

Sneasel pounced on the braced pokemon, claws viciously outstretched and the grin of a triumphant predator, and dust clouded the air from the force of the impact.

The dust cleared, showing Solrock on the ground, and Sneasel on one knee, in bad shape but standing.

"Solrock is unable to battle!" Lusamine called, acting as referee.

"No!" Guzma shouted, trying to rush into the battlefield, but Lusamine grabbed his shirt.

"Solrock, you need to get up, you gotta! Wimpod's my friend, and we have hopes and dreams together..."

Guzma sunk onto his knees breaking into a sob.

"Imagine... Imagine if Mohn was taken away from you one day, how could you live with that? Please..."

Guzma started crying again, unable to hold himself together.

"Sol... Sol..."

Solrock struggled, forcing itself off the ground, barely inches into the air. It knew what it was like to lose a trainer once, it never wanted any pokemon or trainer to feel that way again. It needed to hold on, even without hope.

Solrock slowly started floating back up into the air, just barely levitating inches off the ground.

"Hmph." Cyrus snorted, "Pathetic kid and a pathetic result. Knock it back down again with icy wind Sneasel, I don't have time for this."

Sneasel stood back up straight, almost sorry for the young boy on the sideline.

Almost.

As Sneasel took a deep breath to shoot off the finishing icy wind, it noticed something glowing red by its right foot.

The lingering fire spin revived for a flash, singeing the battered Sneasel, and the ice type passed out on the ground, Solrock soon to follow.

"No! Why?" Cyrus clenched his hand into a fist.

"Both pokemon are unable to battle... " Lusamine announced, and a deathly silence fell over the battlefield.

"But Sneasel fainted first, so Mohn and Solrock are the winners, and Guzma keeps Wimpod!"

Lusamine handed back Wimpod's pokeball to Guzma, sunlight glinting off his tears, making his eyes shine as he took it. Pokeball in hand, Guzma ran over to Solrock on the ground, where Mohn was already propping it up and petting it.

"Thank you so much, Mohn!" Guzma hugged the blond haired trainer, knocking him over and Solrock spinning out of his hands.

"Whoa there, easy!" Mohn chuckled, "You're like a little brother, aren't ya? Anyway, Solrock was the one putting in the heavy lifting, and now you owe me a story!"

Guzma nodded.

"Thank you too, Solrock."

"Ro..." Solrock replied, still exhausted from the battle.

Lusamine was on the other side of the field, whispering something to Cyrus with her hand affectionately on his cheek. He put an arm around her, and the two of the walked off together, fainted Sneasel returned to the pokeball on Cyrus's belt.

"Where are they going?" Guzma asked, as Mohn cared for Solrock with a towel and coarse brush.

"Oh don't mind them," Mohn assured, "they'll be back as soon as Cyrus gets over it."

"O-okay." Guzma watched them disappear around a bend.

"Why does she even like him? I mean, Lusamine is so nice, and Cyrus is..."

"Well, that's just how she is." Mohn shook his head. "I grew up with Lusamine, and she's always had a thing for 'taking care' of others like that. When we were younger, nine I think, she secretly brought home an injured wild primeape and kept in her room..."

"Primeape?" Guzma gasped, "They had those in Kanto too, don't they say that even looking at a primeape makes it furious?"

"You know your stuff, huh?" Mohn laughed, "It was unconscious for three days, as soon as it woke up it tried to tear her house down, and if it weren't for her father's aegislash, it probably would have. It ran right through her dining room wall and left a gaping hole, and you can still see where they fixed and repainted it."

Mohn patted Guzma on the back.

"My point is, Lusamine just looks at things from a different angle, and it gets her into trouble a lot. But you should give Cyrus a chance too, he's not very good with people, but he's brilliant, and has his own way of things... If you get the chance to make amends, take it."

Guzma nodded.

"Okay, I will."

"Now," Mohn motioned Guzma over to his white work table, where numerous notebooks were all open and scrawled upon in small print, "tell me all about your encounter with the alien portals"

Guzma took a deep breath, and started recounting the events of his past week.

"Puna gave me pokeballs to catch a pokeball to start my journey, but I was having trouble catching a pokemon, then I saw a Delibird and chased it into this secret cave outta a field of yellow flowers."

"Wow," Mohn interjected, "you found Seaward Cave on your own? That's cool."

"Anyway," Guzma continued, "I got lost and that's when I found Wimpod running away from this mean ol' pinsir, and we started running away from it together till we hid in a deeper part of the cave, and that's when things really got interesting for you."

Mohn was hurriedly writing down in his notebook, even though Guzma hadn't said anything about the aliens.

"So while we were hiding, this bright blue line of light, almost like a rip in the air, appeared in front of us and expanded into a hole, sort of a tunnel that I couldn't see into. And then these two creatures came out of it, one was a blue and looked like a jellyfish, and the other one looked like a small man with swords for limbs and a weird white and orange face. The blue one touched me on the forehead here,"

Guzma touched his head where the jellyfish had rested its tentacle.

"And asked me if I were a human in my mind. Then it said it had to find someone and left."

"Did you experience any strange effects?" Mohn asked, still furiously scribbling on a notepad.

"Yeah, I was just about to say that. I got super energetic, and every time I rubbed the spot I got that feeling again."

"I knew it! Oh, this is a great day for science!"

Mohn took out a cotton ball.

"Mind if I swab the spot for traces?" Mohn asked, already reaching forward.

Guzma had a bad feeling in his stomach, but Mohn had just saved Wimpod; how could he say no?

"Sure, go ahead."

As soon as Mohn had put the ball of cotton away in a glass vial, Lusamine came over to the table holding Cyrus's hand.

"Lemme see!" She giggled, playfully pushing Mohn and looking at his notes.

Cyrus rested his hand on Guzma's shoulder.

"Come into the forest with me, I've got something I want to talk with you about."

Mohn's words echoed: _if you get the chance to make amends, take it._

"S-sure."

As they walked out of view, Cyrus leered at Guzma and started spitting out words.

"You embarrassed me, you little brat. Mohn told you that you can travel with us, but if Lusamine sees that there's bad blood between us, you're gonna leave."

"B-but I-"

"Don't talk. This isn't about Wimpod... No, this is because you're a stain on my vision."

"What do y-you m-"

"All my work with Mohn, working with extraterrestrial energy, all of this is to help me achieve my dream, to fix this world and it's dreadful emotions. The reason we can't just live in bliss is that there are people like you who are constantly demanding things of others, draining on society. You bring us down from our state of happiness with your weakness!"

"C-Cyrus, I'm sorry, I w-want t-"

"I despise everything about you. Because of people who sustain you like Mohn, leeches like you just fester on the earth..."

"I don't want t-to be a d-drain..." Guzma finally choked out, "I want to be strong, and-"

"Shut up scum, your kind is only good for one thing: entertainment for those who do their part."

Cyrus sighed.

"My grandfather always used to say that this was unhealthy... But the rush it gives me against somebody like you..."

"W-wait, no, I-"

With a bloodlusted sneer, Cyrus slammed his fist into Guzma's stomach, and he collapsed on the ground, doubling into a fetal position, gasping for air.

"Urrrg..." Cyrus shook his head, kicking the black haired boy in the back, sending him rolling into a tree.

He closed his eyes for a couple seconds, his left eyebrow twitching, and when he opened them again they had the crazed look of a madman.

" _ **Guzma, what is wrong with you?!**_ "

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 **A/N: Well, there you have it guys. I'd be very interested about what you think of the battle this chapter, (They're always hard to write and I'm still working on improving them) as well as Cyrus and Lusamine, who will both be given more depth down the line.**

 **Next chapter we will return to Kukui (and soon Ollie as well), I will eventually reorganize the chapters so they pieces are more evenly organized throughout.**

 **Now, the turning point of the battle was when Solrock didn't want any pokemon to be separated from its trainer again. If you can guess via PM who Solrock's first trainer was, I'll give you a shiny pokemon.**

 **Hint: Its the only person in Sun to mention Solrock**

 **As always, if you enjoy reading, you can always follow/favorite to get updates and make me happy.**

 **-RadBattery**


	15. New Recruit

**A/N: Okay guys thank you for sticking with me even though this chapter is way later than it should be, real life got in the way but I should be back to bi-weekly uploads now.**

 **Congratulations to all those who were able to get the last riddle, it was indeed the man in the desert. looks like I'm going to have to make these a bit harder.**

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Chapter 15: First Recruit

Guzma woke up outside of Mohn's tent to the sunrise and the throbbing of bruised ribs. His memory of the end of yesterday was blurry, but after Cyrus had turned to leave him, he remembered his parting words:

" _I'll tell them you wanted a little time with Wimpod, and don't worry, as long as neither of us tells Lusamine and Mohn that you and I aren't on good terms you're free to stay with us. If they find out... Well, I'm simply more significant than you are. See you later, boy."_

At some point in the night, he must have dragged himself back to camp, and fallen asleep.

His hand immediately shot into his pocket, and his hand felt Wimpod's perfectly round pokeball, oval shaped smooth gem, and the pearl Wimpod had found in the vullaby nest. A wave of relief washed over him.

"Hey Wimpod," Guzma sent the bug type pokemon out of its pokeball. "how're ya doing? Glad you stayed in your pokeball through last night, it was rough."

"Wim?" Wimpod's antennae drooped and the turn tail pokemon nuzzled Guzma's chest.

"Ow- hey, I got bruises there."

"Pod..."

"Well, do you still wanna train with me?" Guzma asked in a whisper.

"Pod!" Wimpod replied, its antennae perking back up with excitement.

"Alright, so let's see if we can gather some berries for breakfast, I don't know about you, but I'm starving!"

The two had just started up Route 3 when a terse voice called out at them from behind.

"Halt!"

"Huh? Guzma turned around. There was no reason he should be stopped here, he hoped whoever it was didn't want a pokemon battle.

When Guzma saw the figure striding towards him, the color drained from his face.

"No Wimpod... Not here... They can't be here..."

Black boots.

The ebony flat cap.

The terribly familiar, all black uniform.

And the telltale "R" on the front of his shirt.

A member of Team Rocket, here in Alola.

Memories started rushing back to him, flooding his mind with images; clutching his arm after a Team Rocket grunt broke it, hiding from them in damp rooms that smelled of mold.

These people who forced Guzma's family to run away from their home region just to avoid getting caught.

 _Team Rocket wasn't supposed to be in Alola._

"Halt I say!" The Rocket grunt called again, striding towards Guzma.

Guzma whipped his head around and bolted, running into the nearby tree grove, dodging around bramble bushes amongst the thick trees.

"Why you little Alolan brat!" The grunt shouted and started running after him, the thorny thicket latching onto his black uniform.

Guzma ducked behind a tree, and when he was confident he was out of view, climbed up the low boughs and settled in a comfortable position among the higher branches, watching the Rocket grunt from above.

"Where is that kid..." The man muttered, taking off his cap to reveal a shock of blue hair. "Nobody disobeys Team Rocket in Kanto, why'd I have to take this offer, I don't get anything unless I catch those darn spies."

Wimpod climbed up onto Guzma's head, watching the Rocket member gripe.

The grunt put back on his hat and reached into his pocket, pulling out a line of large pearls that sparkled in a pretty silver color.

"At least this island is loaded with treasure. Even if I don't get the reward for finding those stupid spies, I can still sell this pearl string for good money."

The man stuffed the pearls into his pocket and froze.

"Wait a sec..." He had reached Guzma's tree ran his hands down muddy shoe prints on the branches.

"Out, Houndour."

The grunt flipped a pokeball into the air and a red and black, fierce dog pokemon emerged with a menacing snarl.

"All right twerp, come down from that tree or I'll order Houndour to burn it down. If you try 'n run, Houndour here will still get you. So just come down and no one will get hurt."

Guzma climbed down silently, Wimpod jumping from on top of his head to his shoulder, and down to his back.

"C'mon now, was that so hard? I bet you've never seen a member of Team Rocket, am I right, you runt?"

Guzma nodded silently, slightly confused but focused on finding a way around the scowling houndour.

"Well, Team Rocket is a super cool organization dedicated to stealin- defending Kanto from pokemon. I'm the first member of Team Rocket to ever step foot in Alola, and I'm supposed to be here to look for a couple of spies that ran away, but I've decided I'm gonna start an Alolan branch of Team Rocket here so we can run another region while we're at it!"

Guzma looked at him dumbstruck; he had to get rid of the elephant in the room.

"Do you know who I am?"

"Huh?" The grunt looked over at him. "Sorry kid, I'm not from here, I don't know any local hotshots. Only faces I know are these."

The man took a poster out of his pocket, unfolding it to show a picture of Guzma's parents.

"Alexander and Violette Wake. Heard of 'em?"

Guzma had to suppress his laughter.

 _He doesn't know who I am._

"Anyway, my name's Archer, and I joined Team Rocket fairly recently because I'm a huge fan of Giovanni. So I've just decided that from now on, I, Archer, Team Rocket grunt, own Alola on behalf of Giovanni!"

Archer looked over at Guzma.

"Has a nice ring to it, eh? You could be my first recruit! And uh... I made myself sandwiches. If you're gonna join Team Rocket, you can have one."

Guzma wasn't even sure if this guy was joking. His tone was dead serious, but some random grunt couldn't just take over a region because he wanted to, even he knew that. However, it was good to know that nobody else from Team Rocket was in Alola, so this Archer character, or really, his houndour, was the only one he had to avoid.

Guzma's eyes flitted to the canine pokemon: it was staring at him with a terrible glint in its eye.

"O-okay." Guzma stammered, unsure of what else to say.

"Then it's settled," Archer grinned, "You're my first recruit. Say, what's your name, brat?"

"G-Guzma."

"Eh, that's a stupid name. Well what pokemon do you have?"

Guzma patted his back, nudging out Wimpod onto the ground.

"Ew!" Archer looked at Wimpod with disgust. "What _is_ that thing? It looks like a maggot barfed into a dirty puddle, and I hate bugs. And Puddles. But mostly bugs. They're so gross, I mean-"

Archer jerked his finger behind Houndour.

"Bug!" He screamed, "Burn that thing with an ember attack, Houndour!"

Houndour swiveled its head to where its trainer was pointing. A small paras, a crablike pokemon with mushrooms growing on its back was crawling towards them slowly. As pokemon, Houndour didn't hold the same disgust for them as his trainer did... But it was loyal to his trainer, despite all of his flames shot from its mouth and engulfed the mushroom pokemon, sending Paras flying, leaving trails of smoke following the grass and bug type.

"Anyway," Archer pulled out two flattened pieces of bread. "Do you want peanut butter or... Peanut butter? The sandwiches got a bit squashed, but they still taste fine."

"I-I'm not hungry." Guzma sat down, eyeing Houndour's suspicious glare.

"More for me then," Archer replied, "hey Houndour, do you want?"

Houndour quickly shook its head.

"Even more for me." Archer started eating, and Guzma's eyes wandered over to the nearby bushes, where he heard a strange noise.

"Par..."

"Hey Wimpod," Guzma whispered, glancing back at houndour and Archer to make sure they hadn't heard it, "mind checking out what's making that noise?"

"Wim," Wimpod nodded and scuttled into the bushes, coming back out moments later and pushing along an orange pokemon.

"Paras..." The paras was badly hurt from the drastically effective fire type attack, burns all over its small body.

"Hey Paras, are you okay?" Guzma picked up the small mushroom pokemon.

"Para! Paras Par!"

"Sheesh, that houndour really hurt you bad, huh? It makes sense that you'd be so angry at it."

"Par..."

"Y'know, Wimpod and I were getting beat down by a Pinsir a couple days ago, but we got pretty crafty, and we managed to win in the end. Whaddya say we try to get back at this Team Rocket goon and Houndour?"

"Par?"

Guzma huddled together with Wimpod and Paras and began talking in a hushed whisper.

"Hey!" Archer shouted, "Who's that you're talking to?"

"N-Nobody!" Wimpod ducked out of view and Guzma quickly hid Paras behind his back, nudging it to latch onto the tree he was resting on.

"Listen kid, if you're gonna be my recruit, you gotta be honest with me. Think of me as your new boss, except you don't get paid. So are you gonna be straight with me?"

"Y-yes."

"That's 'yes, _sir_ ' brat, I own the Alola region now, remember?"

Guzma couldn't help but glance up; just as they had planned, Wimpod was carrying Paras onto a branch that hung over their heads.

"Yes sir, brat." Guzma sniggered, sticking out his tongue at Houndour.

"Houn!" Houndour leaped to its trainer's side indignantly.

"Why you twerp, you know that's not what I meant!" Archer shouted,

"Now," he dropped his voice and the tone became far more sinister. "say it straight or I'll fire you from Team Rocket and houndour here'll fire you with some flames."

Guzma nervously looked up at Wimpod and Paras; they weren't in the right spot yet.

"Sir yes Sir!" Guzma saluted, Wimpod still needed a little more time to put Paras into position.

"Sir full disclosure Sir!" Guzma saluted again derisively, trying to keep Archer occupied.

"Eh?" The Rocket grunt looked at Guzma. "You can cut it out if you're gonna be stupid about it."

 _Almost there..._

"I think I know where the fugitives are, Sir! Alexander and Violette Wake."

"You do? Where?"

 _Ready._

"Right above you, Sir!"

"Huh?"

"All right Paras," Guzma grinned, "use stun spore!"

"Eh?" Archer and Houndour we caught straight under the cloud of numbing powder.

"Hey! I'm stuck!" Archer grunted, "Houndour, burn those bugs!"

"Dou..." Houndour was also paralyzed from the stun spore, and it couldn't move.

"Well then," Guzma smugly walked up to the immobilized Team Rocket grunt and reaching into his pocket. "If you're so _stunned_ , I guess you won't be needing this... Pearl string."

"Oh why you little-"

All right Wimpod, Paras, let's move!" Guzma shouted, shoving the pearls into his own pocket.

Wimpod nudged the exhausted mushroom pokemon off the branch and down into Guzma's arms, then jumping down itself onto the short boy's shoulder.

Guzma ran out of the forest and back towards camp, laughing with Wimpod half the time.

"...and did you see his _face_ when I just took the pearl string out of his pocket..."

"Wim!"

"...and how helpless Houndour was after Paras immobilized it?..."

"Par..."

Guzma stopped right outside Mohn, Cyrus, and Lusamine's camping area and placed Paras on the ground.

"Hey Paras... Wimpod and I are going to go back to our camp now. It was nice meeting you, but you should probably go back to wherever you call home. Stay away from other fire types, okay?"

"Para?" Paras limped back towards Guzma, latching onto his shoe.

"Para paras! Pa ras!"

"You want to come... with me?" Guzma started tearing up, his mouth hung open and in a smile.

"Paras!"

"Even though..." Guzma glanced at the bruises Cyrus gave him, "I'm sorta a loser?"

Paras shrugged with a smile, looking down at its small and burned figure.

"Heh, I guess you're right Paras," Guzma shook his head, taking out a pokeball and holding it in front of Paras. "Us losers gotta stick together. How about it Wimpod, let's welcome Paras to the team!"

"Paras!" Paras tapped the button on the pokeball and disappeared inside, the satisfactory chime of a captured pokemon moments later.

"Aw yeah Wimpod," Guzma shouted, picking up the pokeball, "We caught a Paras!"

"Wim-pod pod!"

"Guzma, is that you?" Lusamine walked up, holding a clipboard in one hand. "Cyrus told us that you had gone off to spend time with your pokemon, but we'd figured you'd be back for breakfast. Mohn's cooking can't be beat!"

"Oh man, I forgot we were looking for breakfast, Wimpod!"

"Wim..." Wimpod agreed, holding its stomach.

"C'mon! While Mohn's making breakfast I'll show you some battling basics, then when I'm eating breakfast he'll take over. I'm sure Cyrus could give you a hand too!"

"Uh, t-thanks. I actually wanted to tell you guys, something," Guzma and Lusamine had walked up to the middle of the camp. "I caught a new pokemon. Come on out, Paras!"

Guzma let Paras out of its pokeball and in front of everyone.

"Another bug type?" Mohn inquired, flipping a pancake.

"Yeah, well it was sort of an accident, but Paras is a great pokemon." Guzma shrugged.

"Ugh," Cyrus groaned, "how weak. Intolerable."

"Well I think it's cute!" Lusamine started petting Paras on the head.

"Paras par!"

"Well Guzma," Mohn slid a pancake onto a plastic plate. "Why don't we eat, and then get straight to training?"

"S-sounds great!" Guzma nodded, eagerly reaching for the food with his right hand. His left hand was busy clutching onto his lucky aquamarine gem, right next to Paras's pokeball.

 _You just wait Puna, I'm coming back and I'm gonna beat you, with Wimpod_ _ **and**_ _Paras by my side._

 _You just wait._

.

.

"Gastly, night shade!"

"Gaaa!" Gastly fired off two shadowy bolts against its opponent.

"Houndour no!"

"Dou..." Houndour collapsed onto the forest floor, unable to battle.

"This match is over," Gastly's trainer stated, "go back to Kanto and never return."

"You think I'm gonna give up that easy, Alexander? You're a spy. You hurt Team Rocket, and you meddled with our plans. But most importantly, if I turn you in then I can really start to rise in the ranks of Team Rocket till I'm Giovanni's right-hand man! So I'm never going to give up! This isn't the last time you'll hear the name 'Archer'!"

"Do I need to call the police?" Alexander threaded his hand through his blond hair, unamused and tired of dealing with a glorified Team Rocket wannabe.

"Uh, no!"

Archer took off in between the trees.

"Goodness," Alexander sighed, "I better find Guzma and get my son home before Team Rocket gets to him... Come Gastly, let's keep looking."

"What?" Archer popped back out of the bushes. "Guzma's... Your kid?"

"You were listening in?" Alexander turned around, his face set in a snarl. "Gastly, use night shade!"

"Gya!" Archer started sprinting, thorn bushes ripping and cutting at his uniform.

"Gas?" Gastly looked up at Alexander staring at the spot where Archer was.

"Don't chase him... As long as that buffoon is around, more capable members of Team Rocket won't be after us. We need to focus on finding Guzma and keeping him home, whether he likes it or not."

* * *

 **A/N: Okay last major recurring character for a while with Archer. At this point, I'm also going to try to pick up the pace a bit, expect Hala's trial soon.**

 **Minor note: Despite Guzma not battling with a paras or parasect, I am still writing a backstory, not an AU, just stick with me.**

 **This weeks question: Lusamine offered to help Guzma with his training but in Sun and Moon all her pokemon are the same level. What pokemon did she start with?**

 **PM me your answer, and if you get it right you'll get a random shiny pokemon for your Sun/Moon game.**

 **As always, if you enjoy reading make sure to follow/favorite the story for updates, and I always appreciate hearing your thoughts in a review!  
-RadBattery**


	16. Roughing It Out

**A/N: Great to be back on scedule guys. I'll announce the answer to last week's question in Chapter 17, when that info should be revealed.**

* * *

Chapter 16: Roughing It Out

"This will be a one-on-one battle between Kukui with Litten and Bruno with Machop." Amy called out on the clearing outside the pokemon center. "Once a pokemon is unable to battle, the match will be over. I'll be the referee."

Kukui saw the white, curled tail disappear into a nearby bush.

 _There it was again... No, focus Kukui._

"Litten, I choose you!" Kukui threw Litten's pokeball, and the tiger cat pokemon emerged, licking its paw.

"Lit!"

"Time to shine, Machop!" Bruno let Machop out, and the superpower pokemon struck a heroic pose.

"Chop!"

"Hey Bruno, if I win, that'll be proof that your no-smile training policy is a huge flop. Sound good?"

"Hmph. How would you know how I train my pokemon?"

"It's the way you do everything. Which is fine if you're alone, but pokemon need to feel the love, y'know?"

"You sound like a hippie." Bruno shook his head. "Let's get this over with."

"Let the battle begin!" Amy shouted, adjusting her nurse's hat and raising a flag into the air.

"Sorry to knock out a pokemon you just healed Amy, but Litten and I are going to finish this quick. Litten, use scratch!"

"Ten!" Litten's claws grew longer and the tiger cat pokemon charged towards Machop.

"Machop, dodge that!"

"Chop!" Machop sidestepped out of the way of Litten's attack, a triumphant grin on its face as Litten sailed past him; the move that it had practiced so much with Bruno was working perfectly.

"Now Machop, low kick from behind!"

Machop ran up to Litten and hit its back legs with a powerful kick.

Litten collapsed from the hit, struggling back up with an adamant glare.

"Don't let it stay up, Machop use karate chop!"

"Litten, ember attack!"

Machop jumped in front of Litten with its hand outstretched, about to bring it down for a sharp chop. All of its practice and training with Bruno against the crabrawlers had paid off; it was stronger and faster than Litten; an improvement from the even match in the battle royale two weeks ago.  
"Ten!" Litten fired off the ember attack before Machop could hit it with the final stroke. Machop was strong, but Litten wouldn't give up that easy.

"Ha!" Kukui pumped his fist in the air. "Y'know Bruno, if you want to be as strong as Litten and me, you're going to have to smile more!"

"Ridiculous," Bruno sighed, "Machop, leer!"

Machop stared down Litten maliciously. It had made a mistake feeling so confident, but next time it would hit harder. Faster.

"Litten, leer right back!"

"Litt..." Litten growled at the superpower pokemon, meeting its glare with its own. The ember attack dealt damage, but Kukui and it would have to be stronger together if they wanted a chance; Machop hit like a truck.

"All right Litten, ember again!"

"Dodge and karate chop!"

"Li..." Litten fired off the small flames, and Machop leaped over them and came down with a clean chop onto Litten's forehead, knocking the fire type's chin straight into the ground.

"Litten no!" Kukui shouted, clenching his fist. "Can you still battle?"

"Litt..." Litten struggled to its feet, its breath raspy.

"Y'know Kukui, maybe instead of smiling with your pokemon, you should've been training it."

"Why you..." Kukui grimaced; Bruno didn't know what he and Litten had been through. "C'mon Litten, there's no way we can let them beat us! Use ember, full force!"

"Ten!" Litten started to build up a large fireball in its mouth.

"Machop, wait for it, then dodge! We'll finish up soon."

"Now Litten," Kukui pointed straight at Machop, "run up to Machop and fire point-blank!"

"Ten.." Litten raced up right in front of the surprised Machop, waiting for Litten to let go of the orb of fire it was charging up, and slammed the flames into Machop, hitting it to the ground with a thud.

"Don't stop now Litten, scratch!"  
"Get up, Machop!"

Machop was still on the ground and Litten slashed its claws against Machop's side.

"All right Litten! Now let's win this!" Kukui looked across the battlefield to Bruno. "We may not have been training quite as hard, but Litten trusts me, and I have good strategies. Together, we're unbeatable!"

Bruno replied in a monotone.

"Low sweep."

Machop rooted its hands behind him, lifted up its chest partially, then swung its legs around under Litten, hitting the tiger cat's shins and flipping the pokemon over onto its back. Machop heaved itself up, standing over the immobilized Litten.

"Chop!" Machop grunted with triumph.

"Litten, get up!"

"Hmph." Bruno shook his head. "Low sweep is Machop's newest and strongest attack. We perfected it to beat top-heavy pokemon like crabrawler, but it seems like Litten is done."

"Litt..." Litten opened its eyes, turning over onto its paws and struggling to its feet, swaying a little back and forth.

"Litten!" Kukui shouted with a smile.

"Te..." Litten started to straighten up fully.

"You can do this, Litten..."

Litten's leg gave out, still hurt from taking the brunt of the damage from the low sweep.

With a quiet thump Litten was still; fainted.

"Stop!" Amy raised her hand like a referee's flag, "Litten is unable to battle, Machop and Bruno are the winners."

"Nice battling Kukui." Bruno stretched out his hand to shake Kukui's.

Kukui stared up at the giant.

"You're wrong," He spat, "pokemon are not just for battling, you can't treat them the way you treat Machop. What you're doing is wrong. I can't-"

"Save your breath Kukui," Bruno scowled, "What I'm doing is best for Machop to reach its full potential. Now butt out and mind your own business."

"Well, it wouldn't hurt if you showed Machop that you cared sometimes!"

"I said mind your own business!" Bruno shouted, "Now Nurse Joy, please heal up Machop, next we're heading over to Iki Town to take on my father's trial."

Amy reluctantly took Machop's pokeball.

"Should I take Litten's too?"

"Yeah," Kukui mumbled, "thanks."

Amy and Bruno started walking inside the pokemon center; Amy stopped and turned around when she saw Kukui wasn't following them.

"Aren't you coming?"

"I'll be there in a minute." Kukui leaned back on his left heel.

"Uh, okay. Just don't go too far, without Litten you don't have a pokemon to protect you, going into tall grass could be dangerous!" Amy disappeared through the door of the Pokemon Center with Bruno.

Kukui stared at the spot where Litten collapsed under its own weight and bruised shins.

 _How... Could I have lost? Why wasn't Litten stronger? It had enough energy to get up, why couldn't it stay up?_

 _I thought I was done with losing._

A white blur interrupted Kukui's thoughts.

"C'mon out, whatever you are!" Kukui called, "I've seen you following me for days now. Show yourself!"

Silence.

"No need to be scared..."

 _Thwip_.

The blur ducked behind another tree.

"All right, I've had enough," Kukui took half a step backward. "If you're gonna keep tailing me, show yourself. But if you won't, you might as well scram. I-"

Kukui got his breath knocked out of his chest by a heavy weight slamming into his back and knocking him to the floor, followed by what felt like a baseball bat hitting his right leg. Then the weight lurched forward and sharp rocks dug into Kukui's neck.

"Yeaooow!"

"Ruff!"

The weight got off and ran in front of him.

"Ruff! Rock-ruff!"

"Rockruff?" Kukui rubbed his back, "Who are y- wait a second, you're the rockruff I found with Litten in the rain!"

Rockruff's pelt shone a light brown, but its tail was white; this was the pokemon that had been following him.

"Ruff!"

"Urk..." Kukui groaned, "Why'd you follow me all the way here just to attack me like that, huh?"

"Ruff! Ro-Ruff!" The rockruff wagged its tail excitedly.

"You seem pretty happy for a pokemon that just attacked a human. What do you want?"

"Roc!" Rockruff dashed over to Kukui's bag and pulled out a pokeball.

"Wait, you _want_ me to catch you?" Kukui struggled and sat up; pebbles were starting to dig into his stomach.

Rockruff nodded furiously.

"Even after I turned you away when we left the cave... Sheesh, I don't know, I promised Litten that I wouldn't catch any more pokemon for a while so that we could train together, and grow stronger."

Rockruff stared at Kukui blankly.

"What I'm saying is, I can't catch any more pokemon because I'm only training with Litten. So I'm not going to catch you."

Kukui started to stand up.

"Ouch!" Kukui bent back down onto his left leg. There was a huge mark on his calf from Rockruff, and putting weight on it hurt a lot.

 _Rockruff's tail must have slammed into my leg._

"Listen Rockruff, I'm not still here because I want to catch you, I'm hanging out because I was... Thinking."

Rockruff padded over to sit next to Kukui and nuzzled his hip.

"I just lost a battle for the first time since I started my journey, and it was to one of the biggest jerks I know. I mean, we're rivals, because he thinks that strength comes from only training, but I know that you gotta be friends with your pokemon. The thing is, I lost because my pokemon wasn't trying hard enough. I need my pokemon to never give up, always be by my side, even through tough spots and..."

Rockruff's tail was thumping, and it looked up at Kukui with shining eyes.

"You just don't take no for an answer, huh? You..." Kukui's mind was racing. "You don't give up."

"Ruff-ruff!" Rockruff jumped on Kukui again and rubbed its stone collar against his neck.

"Ow! I guess that means you like me, huh?"

"Rock!" Rockruff nodded.

"Alright then, I'll explain everything to Litten later," Kukui picked up the pokeball and threw it to Rockruff.

"Ruff!" Rockruff hit the button of the pokeball and disappeared inside with a flash of red light.

"Welcome to the team, Rockruff." Kukui smiled, a twinge of doubt nudging into his mind.

 _Litten will be fine with it,_ Kukui rationalized, _it knew Rockruff even before I did. I'll just explain when I get back._

"Woo!" Kukui shouted to the sky, "I caught a Rockruff!"

.

.

"Your name's really Amy, isn't it?" Bruno inquired, "I heard Kukui call you that. You just go by Nurse Joy because it's your job?"

Amy looked at him; he hadn't said a word since they had gotten inside, maybe ten long minutes ago. Chansey got Machop to lie down and rest, Amy was dealing with Litten, and the whole time Bruno was silently sitting on the bench outside.

"Yes. What's it to you? You don't care about _anyone_ , right?"

Bruno looked away.

"I care about some things, I care about my training, I care about Machop, I-"

"You don't _act_ like you care about Machop." Amy had just finished hooking up Litten to all the healing machinery.

"Kukui's getting to you, huh? He's got this thing in his head, but it's just that Machop and I... We don't just want to be good. We want to be great. We want to be on the highest pinnacle of perfection, we want to look down on the world and know that nobody, nobody can beat us. And when that's your dream...There's simply no time for joking around now; when we're done, Machop and I will laugh together."

"Chop." Machop had trudged out of his hospital bed and sat next to Bruno.

"And Machop..." Amy looked at the superpower pokemon with a twinge of sadness, "You agree with all this?"

"Ma-chop!" Machop thumped its chest; a resounding yes.

"Well, whatever works for you two... Amy looked at her shoes. "I just hate to see how hurt you always are, Machop."

"Mach..." Machop patted Amy on the back. "Chop!"

There was a fire in Machop's eyes. Determination.

"Listen, Amy," Bruno got up and looked straight into her eyes. "I'm sorry I yelled at you that time. We started badly, but I'm going to pass my father's trial, and then beat Puna. Then I'm off to Akala Island to clear the trials there. What I'm trying to say is, we probably won't see each other again. But... It was nice meeting you, Amy."

"Oh..."

"Hmph, Bruno shook his head. "I wouldn't expect any other response, I guess I deserve it."

Bruno and Machop walked out the door together in silence.

"Oh Chansey, I just don't know anymore!"

"Chan?" Chansey stared at its flustered partner.

"Litt..."

"Chansey, Litten's awake! Use heal pulse!"

"Chan... Sey!" Chansey launched a glowing pulse towards Litten, and many of its scratches and bruises dissolved.

"Hey Amy," Kukui limped into the Pokemon Center. "How's Litten doing?"

"Litten's feeling much better than before, but it still needs to rest more. What happened to you?"

Kukui leaned back on his left heel.

"Uh, I tripped."

"Lit." Litten jumped off the cot and nuzzled Kukui's leg.

"Litten sure loves your undivided attention, Kukui."

"Uh yeah, about that..."

"Litt?"

"It's um, really great that it's just you and me Litten, just like I promised... That's all."

Kukui pushed the other pokeball deep into his pocket.

* * *

 **A/N: Well, Kukui journeys onwards. I'd love to hear from you how you feel about Kukui and Bruno, (Don't worry about Molayne, he'll be back soon) Which one do you like better, do you prefer narrations from their POV or the POV of Litten and Machop?**

 **Tell me that and other thought in a review, it really gives me a boost every time someone posts one. (Same goes for new follow/favorites)**

 **This chapter's question: Why does Kukui lean on his heel twice this chapter? (Must bring evidence from an earlier chapter)**

 **As always, PM me your answer for a shiny pokemon in your S/M game.**


	17. Nature of Bravery

**A/N: Okay took 1.5x as long to write a chapter that is 1.5x longer than usual. Thanks for waiting.**

 **As for the answer to last weeks question, Kukui leans back on his heel when he is lying or concealing something. (Chapter 9) Congrats to MagmaLycan for figuring it out!**

* * *

Chapter 17: Nature of Bravery

"Wimpod, struggle bug!"

"Solrock, harden!"

"Pod!" Wimpod brought its tail down onto Solrock's rocky figure.

"Ro..."

"Alright, that's enough." Lusamine clapped her hands. "Wimpod's looking stronger than ever!"

"You think?" Guzma's mouth flashed his teeth in a smile.

"Well I certainly hope so," Mohn put his hand on Guzma's shoulder, "we've been training for more than a week now."

 _A week..._ _And Cyrus has taken me for our "training sessions" three times._

Guzma rubbed the spot between his ribs. Bruises there multiplied faster than anywhere else. Just last night Cyrus had taken him back to the forest for a "training session", and Guzma noticed he avoided exposed areas of skin.

" _This is the only thing you're good for..."_

" _You're scum. In a perfect world you wouldn't exist."_

It wasn't just the bruises that stung.

"Hey Mohn," Cyrus walked up to them from the white table where the two young men did their research. "I just got a call from my aunt in Hau'oli City, she has some huge info for us on the aliens. It sounds real good, when can we meet her?"

Cyrus looked up to see Mohn holding a backpack and a stupid grin.

"Now maybe?" His eyes were glittering with delight.

"Mohn, chill!" Lusamine crossed her arms across her chest. "I need to do some shopping in Hau'oli City, so wait a minute for me to get my things together, and we'll all go."

"Well, what are you waiting for?" Mohn grinned, and his gaze slowly shifted to Guzma.

"Hau'oli city is on the way to Iki Town, where Hala holds his fighting type trial. We've been training for a while, why don't you try to pass the trial?"

"H-how do you know I'm strong enough?"

"Well I can't say for sure, but Lusamine and I already passed it, and we _have_ been training. I think you should go for it!"

"All right." Guzma held his chin up. "I'll do it."

"Great, why doesn't Lusamine help you get there? Cyrus and I _need_ to get going." Mohn's whole body was shaking with excitement. "This is amazing!"

Cyrus rolled his eyes. "Chill, Mohn. You always get so worked up about these things."

"This is my dream," Mohn looked up at the morning sky. "To find creatures from another world, to create a place where they can roam freely and safely, here in the world of pokemon. It's a bit like what you and Lusamine are aiming for."

"Don't try and equate us," Cyrus shook his head with a smirk, "I'm studying these cosmic entities to be able to find their ties to the myths and legends of old. If we can reach the legendary pokemon of the highest strength we can use their power to improve the lives of all the humans they deem worthy. These creatures are a mean to an end for the benefit of humans."

"That's not how Lusamine put it," Mohn smirked, nudging Cyrus's shoulder.

"She and I have... Different goals from the same root reason. Don't we all just want to make a perfect world? It's all a matter of what you see as perfection."

"That's pretty wise sounding for a guy who spikes up his blue hair." Mohn chuckled, grabbing Cyrus by the arm, "Now stop being so emotionless and c'mon!"

Mohn started dragging Cyrus, and within moments the two were briskly walking together, Mohn animatedly bouncing around Cyrus like a small child.

"They get along so nicely, don't they Guzma?" Lusamine was holding a pink drawstring backpack in her right hand. "It's a good thing too, Mohn and I have been close ever since we were little."

Lusamine scanned the clearing, their campsite.

"Let's get going too, there's not much for us to do here."

As the two of them started walking down Route 2, a silence hung like a fragile chandelier, and Guzma dared not break it.

 _She really is amazing... Her hair, her blue summer dress, that crystal she wears around her neck... She's..._

"... Something pretty?" Lusamine finished her question.

"Exactly..."

"Well, can I see it?"

"What?" Guzma's thoughts returned to reality, and he was staring into Lusamine's expectant green eyes.

"The thing you always hold onto in your pocket, you said it was something pretty. Can I see it?"

Guzma didn't even notice his hand clasped on his lucky stone in his pocket.

"Um, sure."

Guzma held out the light blue gem to her almost reluctantly.

"Wow!" Lusamine exclaimed, "A dawn stone!"

"A... Dawn stone?"

"A dawn stone is a rare item that can help certain species of pokemon evolve. It allows a snorunt to evolve into froslass, and a kirlia evolve into a gallade. The most defining feature of a dawn stone is the way it sparkles like a glittering eye... Or is it that it sparkles like eyes?" Lusamine put her index finger on her chin.

"I can't remember!" She finally blurted, giggling.

Guzma looked at her wide eyed as he put his lucky dawn stone back into his pocket.

"How... How do you know all that?"

"What do you mean?" Lusamine narrowed her eyes, her gentle tone gone. "You thought that only Mohn and Cyrus were smart because they wear lab coats and are studying to be professors?"

Guzma looked at her, silent, as his face turned a light shade of pink.

"You thought I was Cyrus's arm candy, huh? A pretty airhead? I can carry a conversation with Mohn or Cyrus about their work just as well as they can, just it's not that important to me."

Lusamine took a deep breath, and her voice grew softer, but dropped to a near whisper.

"I told you, I think, I want to create a paradise where I care for all pokemon, in a way that I help the most pokemon possible. Because in the end, if you care selectively, only when caring makes you feel better about yourself, then you aren't caring for them... You're caring for yourself. That's why it's extra important to pay attention to guys like Cyrus who really need it, even if they aren't nice back. Real generosity is all about dealing with those who need it most, and that's why I'm focusing on the island challenge because if I finish it I'll get my paradise."

"W-wow..." Guzma stuttered, at a loss for words.

"I'm sorry, I was a bit harsh before," Lusamine looked away with a sigh. "you did something nice by showing me your dawn stone, even though I can see it's really important to you. The truth is, my father drilled me for hours about that kind of information when I was a kid, I'm not sure how much more than the name I would've known if it weren't for him."

Guzma walked on with her, almost afraid to speak, as the dirt path of Route 2 gave way to the paved streets of Hau'oli City.

"Here, I'll show you a special stone of mine..."

Lusamine took off her necklace, holding it out to Guzma.

Up close, the crystal held by a thin gold chain was even prettier. It was clear, almost like glass, but it had a shimmer that felt otherworldly. In the very center, there was a light blue star pattern with six extended points like a starfish that drew Guzma's gaze toward it, almost mesmerizingly.

"It's been a family heirloom all the way back from when my ancestors arrived in Alola, part of one of the first groups to ever set foot here. My father said it's very important, but he truly doesn't know where my ancestors got the crystal."

Guzma handed back the necklace and Lusamine sighed.

"I was right about you the first time, you don't talk much... I hope you're not still mad at me for snapping at you. Listen, I didn't mean it like that, I'm sure you were just asking an honest question. How about this, I'll help you pick out new clothes here; I've got great taste!"

Guzma pulled together a smile as he looked down at his outfit; His shirt and pants were torn and roughed up in many places from his falling and running in the cave where he found Wimpod almost two weeks ago.

"T-that would be nice."

"Great! Let's do that right after we shop for berries!" Lusamine pointed to a huge building just beyond the pokemon center.

"That's the Hau'oli shopping center, it's got everything I need, I need to restock on medicine and berries, but they have all kinds of cool stuff, why don't you come along?"

The gentle warmness was back in Lusamine's voice, and Guzma nodded enthusiastically as she pulled him along.

The inside of the mall was brightly lit from giant windows, and the berry shop had piles upon piles of berries set up in artistic displays of vibrant colors. Guzma's nostrils were bombarded with a flux of scents, spicy aromas tickling his nostrils alongside sticky sweet smells hanging in the air like syrup.

"Welcome to the Berry Emporium!" A young lady wearing an apron came out to greet them. "Here at the Berry Emporium, we pride ourselves on bringing the best and rarest berries from across Alola to one place for you. Berry trees across Alola produce fruit that's free for all to take, but on Melemele Island you can't get very much variety in your berries like you can here. So please, find something you like, we have everything!"

"Thank y-you," Guzma muttered, still overwhelmed from the sheer numbers and colors of all the berries.

"C'mon out, Petilil!" Lusamine threw a pokeball into the air and the green bulb pokemon emerged.

"Lil!" It cooed, running up to the nearest pile of berries.

"Hey, that's a good idea," Guzma mumbled, "Let's go, Wimpod, Paras."

"Wim!" Wimpod ran straight up onto Guzma's shoulders after being released from its pokeball.

"Par!" Paras's eyes glittered as it took in the scene.

"Aaaaaaayyeeeeeeeee!" Lusamine shrieked from behind a pile of berries.

"Lusamine, what happened?" Guzma rushed over to find her kneeling down around a bunch of orange spiked fruit with Petilil.

"These are petaya berries, this rare berry grows only on Poni Island, but it is rumored to be imbued with the power of all living things... But most importantly, they're Petilil's favorites!"

"Lil-pet-lil!"

"How do you know what Wimpod and Paras's favorites will be?"

"Well," Lusamine started to put the petaya berries into a bag. "Usually a pokemon's preferences are determined by its nature. I know that Petilil likes bitter foods and doesn't like sour foods because of its gentle nature."

"Feel free to try a couple of samples to see what your pokemon prefer," The lady with the apron brought out a bunch of berries on a tray. "These have simple flavors, let's see what these two like! As your friend mentioned earlier, knowing your pokemon's berry preference is a great way to tell their personality!"

"Par..." Paras looked up at the tray and started making its way over.

"Let's start out with a cheri berry. In battle, these cure paralysis, but they are rather spicy!"

The lady in the apron held out a small, red, round fruit with a small twisting stem.

"Wim..." Wimpod took a bite out of the cheri berry and started chewing.

"Pod!" Wimpod's face turned red and it started racing around the piles of berries.

"Pod pod pod pod pod pod pod!" It came across an oval, yellow berry with a green crown of small leaves.

"Wim!" Wimpod bit into the berry and quieted down.

"That's a pinap berry," The lady in the apron sighed, "they're even spicier than cheri berries..."

"POD!" Wimpod started racing around the store again in a panic, it's face a bright shade of pink.

"At this rate," Lusamine giggled, "Wimpod'll learn flamethrower!"

"Wim!" Wimpod jumped into a small decorative fountain and started lapping up the water.

"Looks like Wimpod hates spicy food!" The lady in the apron held out a second cheri berry to Paras.

"What about you, little one?"

Paras cautiously edged forward and took a bite.

"Par..."

"Par-ras!" Paras exclaimed in glee, eagerly munching down on the remainder of the berry.

"How interesting..." The apron lady shook her head. "Paras seems to prefer spicy foods, while Wimpod abhors them. Pokemon are fascinatingly different, aren't they?"

"Y-you said something about that having to do with their p-personality," Guzma stuttered, "what does that mean about my pokemon?"

"Well, liking spicy food tends to mean that a pokemon is more brave or adamant in nature, and disliking spicy foods is an indicator that it's more timid or bashful."

"How's that decided?" Guzma scowled, "Who cares what foods Wimpod likes, it's still a brave pokemon!"

The lady in the apron smiled and shook her head.

"According to legend, the Island Guardians determine the fate of both the people and pokemon of the Alola region. I'm not sure how a pokemon's nature gets decided, but my guess is that the Island Guardians have their hand in it."

"Well," Guzma held up his chin and puffed out his chest. "You tell them I don't care what they think, Wimpod's plenty strong."

"You can tell Melemele Island's guardian, Tapu Koko, yourself," Apron lady smiled, "Tapu Koko is said to reside in the Ruins of Conflict, which is just north of Iki town and Hala's trial."

"Speaking of, if we want to finish shopping and get you to Iki Town by sundown, we better get moving!" Lusamine remarked, turning to the lady in the apron. "Can I get twelve of these petaya berries?"

"Certainly!" The apron lady went back behind the desk and rang up a number on the cash register.

"And for you, Guzma... I'd like you to take a cheri berry, on the house, for Paras. I know that your visit here didn't turn out exactly the way you wanted it to, but nonetheless I think all three of you are going great places. I'm rooting for you every step of the way!"

"T-thank you..." Guzma looked up at her smiling face. "I'll put it to good use."

"Okay Guzma, the apparel store, the Gracidea, is right next door!" Lusamine called, "C'mon, Petilil!"

"Lili!"

"All right Wimpod, Paras, let get going."

"Good luck on your trial!" Apron lady called as they left the door and entered the apparel store.

As Guzma entered the small clothing outlet, his eyes were bombarded by all the racks of brightly colored clothing and the faint smell of bleach.

" _Bonjour_ young man, and welcome to the Gracidea!" A young brunette in a black and white uniform walked out from behind the counter. "You look very lost, let me help you find the best outfit for _you_ , _monsieur_!"

"Actually," Lusamine started, her arms crossed over her chest, " _I'm_ helping my friend pick-"

"Nonsense!" The woman grabbed Guzma's hand and pulled him over to a rack of shirts. "Why don't you try on this white collared shirt? It is the finest style nowadays, and only 49,500 pokedollars!"

"Why you..." Lusamine grabbed Guzma away from the saleswoman and stared daggers at her. "My friend here just wants clothes, not to be driven broke. He can't afford crazy things like that!"

"The contents of his pockets beg to differ." The woman smiled snidely into Lusamine's green-gold eyes, reaching quickly into Guzma's left pocket and pulling out the pearl string.

"This is a very expensive treasure, _monsieur_. Surely you wish to exchange it with us for the latest fashion?"

"Um, actually I was hoping for something a bit more-"

"No no, you are right. This is not nearly expensive enough for a young man like yourself. Tell _moi_ , how many of these pearl strings do you have?"

"Only one, I, uh, found it."

" _Sacre bleu_! You are a common folk! Our rubbish rack is in the back, go look there."

Lusamine sniggered as the two of them made their way over to the clothing on the far wall of the shop.

"Well Guzma, I guess it's good to know who you can trust; nobody trying to make a sale!"

"I guess you're right. I can trust my pokemon, Mohn, and... You."

"Of course you can trust me, silly! I'm your friend, I'd never use you like that!"

Lusamine pointed to a pair of trousers.

"Let's put this with these... Oh, and try this too... Try this on!"

"Not the pants, I need something baggy, with big pockets."

"How about these carpenter jeans then?"

"No, I gotta be able to run fast... These look good."

Guzma took a pair and Lusamine thrusted the rest of the clothes into Guzma's arms, and a minute in the dressing later he emerged wearing them.

"How do I look?"

Guzma pulled down a sleeve. The grey hoodie Lusamine had picked out was a bit big on him, but the fabric was so thin he barely felt like he was wearing it over the white t-shirt.

"You look great, use the mirror!"

Guzma peered at his reflection, his navy blue sneakers didn't stand out too much and the pants were perfect; thick black cotton, baggy at the top for big pockets, but white straps by the ankle forming an "x" on each shin to keep them from getting in the way.

"C'mon out Wimpod, what do you think?"

"Pod!" Wimpod exclaimed in approval, jumping up into the hood hanging behind Guzma.

"Although I have to say," The brunette walked back up to them, "those are the weirdest parachute pants I've ever seen. I'm not even sure why we have them."

"Well I like them," Guzma stared at the lady. "And you may think that I'm a pushover, but Wimpod and I... But we're a brave team."

"Hmph! Well your pearl string is just enough to pay for that, so you may take it and be on your way. _Au Revoir!_ "

"Cyrus and Mohn will be meeting up with me again soon." Lusamine beckoned to Guzma as she left the shop. "You're going to want to head straight..."

Lusamine ran outside the mall and pointed down a wide road.

"There. The path between Iki Town and Hau'oli City is so well established that you should have no trouble getting there, so you can spend your time planning for your first trial!"

Guzma nodded.

"And what about y-you?"

"I'm going to meet back up with Mohn and Cyrus, truth is Petilil and I should be training to beat Puna- I hear she's really tough."

"A-all right..." Guzma smiled, but he couldn't tell why. "See you soon."

"And Guzma..." Lusamine's voice grew quiet, just above a whisper. "If you want to be brave, be brave. It doesn't matter what Tapu Koko thinks, or the lady from the apparel shop, or even Hala, the trial captain. Just... Be whatever you want."

Guzma nodded with a grin and took off to his first trial.

.

.

"Hey Cyrus, so how'd it go? What'd you learn?" Lusamine walked up to her boyfriend and Mohn, who were leaning against the wall of the pokemon center.

"It wasn't even secondhand, just a rumor that was probably more fiction than fact." Cyrus grunted, angrily kicking a rock.

"It wasn't a total waste though," Mohn playfully elbowed Cyrus in the arm. "we did get one important piece of information."

"What was it?" Lusamine put her arm around Cyrus, but he didn't return the gesture.

"Just a name, apparently he'll know everything." he grumbled.

"Who?"  
"Some kid named..." Cyrus rubbed his temple. "Mohn, what was his name again?"

"Molayne."

* * *

 **A/N: Fun chapter to write!**

 **This week's question: Lusamine mentions two descriptions for the dawn stone. Explain why both are correct.**

 **As always, writing a review sends happiness into my heart which is very much appreciated. This time, I'd love to hear your thoughts on Lusamine. Do you like her? Does she feel Mary-Suish? (Include whether you have played Sun/Moon when she goes psycho bitch)**

 **Super tired but will update the AN more tomorrow, hope you enjoyed.**

 **-RadBattery**


	18. Taking the First Step

**Chapter 18: Taking the First Step**

"Bruno, it makes me so proud to see how strong you've gotten over a mere two weeks," Hala's eyes were glistening with happy tears, "same with you, Machop, you take care of Bruno, will you?"

"Father, Machop and I need to head out soon, can we finish up?"

"Machop, your dodges were spot on, and his trust in you is what propelled you two to victory in my trial. It is with great honor that the totem pokemon and I bestow this _Fightinium Z_ to you two. This is the very crystal I used on my Island Trial when I was your age... It gives me such joy to pass it on to you."

"Thank you, Father. Machop and I are heading to Verdant Cavern now to defeat Puna. Send my regards to Brawly and Mom."

Hala's face drooped, age beginning to show on his face.

"Don't you... want to stay the night maybe? Spend some last time with your family before you head out? Your room hasn't been touched, after all."

"Actually, I dropped by home to spend a couple hours with Mom and Brawly before the trial, so I better get going."

"Oh... It's a shame I missed it, you know I head to the forest to meditate every morning."

Bruno looked down uncomfortably at Machop.

"I see," Hala sighed, "well whatever your grievance is, know that I love you Bruno, with all my heart."

Hala stroked his moustache, looking down at his sandals while feeling the faint wrinkles forming on his cheeks that only haunted his face when his smile was absent.

"Bruno..."

When Hala lifted his gaze, his son already left.

.

.

Guzma sighed with relief as he passed a wooden sign with "Iki Town" caved in bold script.

"We made it Wimpod," Guzma petted his pokemon, who had taken to riding in Guzma's grey hood, "we made it."

"Molayne!" A tan boy without a shirt ran past him, and punched a skinny teenager with blond hair in the arm, eliciting a cough out of the other.

 _Molayne..._ Guzma thought, _where do I know that name? Wait..._ Guzma's face grew hot. _He's the kid with the magnemite who Wimpod and I ran away from, the day I met Mohn and Cyrus._

 _..._

 _..._

 _...and that means I owe him money._

"Hey, I know that kid!" Molayne shouted, walking over to Guzma, who was slowly backpedalling. "No need to be scared, keep the money, I don't mind."

Guzma shifted his weight with discomfort.

"Uh, Guzma, right? This is my best friend, Kukui, he's a pokemon trainer like you and me."

"You mean _better_ than you and him." The tan boy, Kukui, grinned.

"I guess you're forgetting who won the battle we had _right here_ two weeks ago? The one where I beat you?"

"Uhhhh... beginner's luck." Kukui suppressed a laugh. "You'll see, I'll pass this trial before you all even make it to the totem pokemon."

"T-totem pokemon?" Guzma asked.

"You're here for Hala's trial, aren't you?" Molayne guessed, "Each trial is composed of two parts- the trial, some sort of mission you need to undertake, then you battle the totem pokemon, a giant, super strong pokemon that tests your battling strength. If you can defeat it, then you pass the trial."

"And sometimes," Kukui interjected, "If you do really really well, the totem pokemon and the Trial Captain will give you a Z-crystal!"

"Z-crystals?" Guzma rubbed his forehead.

"You don't know about Z-crystals?" Kukui laughed with disbelief. "What, were you born yesterday?"

"I m-moved to Alola two weeks ago. W-what are Z-crystals?"

"Z-crystals are special stones that help a trainer and pokemon use a very powerful attack once they have a strong enough bond," Molayne explained, "in order to use the attack though, you not only need the Z-crystal but also a Z-ring, and those are a lot rarer. Only a kahuna can make you one out of a special stone that is almost impossible to find, but in order to compete with the strongest trainers, it's a must."

"Yo, someone say somethin' about strong trainers, yo?" A group of four teenagers wearing black clothing approached Guzma, Kukui, and Molayne.

"Hey," Kukui grinned, "you wanna battle or something?"

"Yo, no bro!" The leader threw his hands around as he spoke, pointing in random directions and then just as quickly letting his hands fall as if gravity had intensified. "Ol' Hala put us in charge of movin' some wood through the forest by the Ruins of Conflict for a new bridge, but..."

A girl from the group with similar dark clothes and pink hair stepped up.

"Dude, our pokemon just don't cut it tusslin' with the wild pokemon out there!"

"So bro, what we're sayin' is..."

"You boys mind helpin' us through the forest here?"

Molayne nodded with a smile.

"We'll be happy to help you guys out!"

"Uh, no," Kukui gave Molayne a look of concern. "If we help out these losers, we'll be late to out trial with Hala. C'mon, let's keep moving."

"Hey man, not cool!" The girl put her hands on her hips.

"Yo, what about the little dude?"

All eyes turned to Guzma.

"Wha- who... Who even are these guys?"

"Yo man, the Island Trials are hard stuff, y'know?" The punk was still making odd hand motions. "We're all dudes and dudettes who are tryin' to take on the challenge but we don't make the top cut. Ol' Hala helps us train 'round him and gives us jobs t'make us better trainers, so we can join up wi' the champs someday. There ain't that many of us on Melemele Island here, but the tougher the challenge the more people get stuck trainin' tryin' to pass it."

"You didn't tell Guzma what you're called," Kukui shot the man a sly smile.

"Ol' hotshot here is right." The punk sighed, then took a deep breath.

" 'Round the tough guys we're called The Skulls, 'cause they say we're as good as dead if we can't achieve nothin' while we try for the top."

"But it's hard, yo!"

"Anyway," Kukui put his hand on Guzma's shoulder, "there's your proof that we shouldn't waste our time with them. Let's head to the trial site."

"I w-wanna help them."

"Ha!" Molayne poked a finger at Kukui's bare chest. "That's two to one."

"Yo, you're a real bro!"

The three of them walked into the forest with the gaggle of Skulls carrying wood, an eerie quiet settling over the group.

"S-so where are these wild pokemon?" Guzma asked, looking around.

"Oh, uh, man, um, they should pop out any moment, y'know?"

"If I recall correctly from our childhoods Kukui," Molayne looked over at his longtime friend, "this forest has a whole lotta pikipek, the woodpecker pokemon, but not much else. Let's do this, Magnemite!"

"Magne!"

"Hm, good thinking with Magnemite, using an electric type against flying types. I guess I'll follow that up with my own pokemon for flying types..."

"Kukui, you caught another pokemon?"

"I choose you, Rockruff!"

"Ruff-Ruff!"

"Hey, a Rockruff!" Molayne petted the dog pokemon with a smile. "You're right, rock types like Rockruff are strong against flying types."

"Braw!"

"Braw!"

"Crab-brawler!"

"Wild crabrawler!" Molayne shouted, "Magnemite, use thunder wave!"

"Magne!"

Magnemite attacked with a weak jolt of electricity, paralyzing one of the three crabrawler.

"Yo, these are the guys who got us spooked last time!"

"You dudes gotta beat 'em, c'mon!"

"Rockruff, use tackle!" Kukui shouted, and Rockruff charged into a crabrawler, "Crabrawler are fighting types, strong against a rock type like Rockruff and steel types like Magnemite, we should get outta here and head towards the trial, this isn't worth it."

"N-no..." Guzma took Paras's pokeball from his pocket, "C'mon Paras, let's help these guys out, stun spore!"

"Par!" Paras let a cloud of orange spores into the air, watching them settle on the last crabrawler.

"Cra..." The wild crabrawler tried to attack Paras, but the paralysis from the stun spore prevented it from moving.

"Yo, thas' the stuff!" One of the Skulls shouted.

"All right Paras, scratch!"

"Ras!" Paras scratched the immobilized crabrawler over and over again.

"Braw... Braw..."

Crabrawler grunted, and with all of its strength brought a rock smash attack down on Paras.

"Paras! Are you okay?"

Paras shook itself off and got back on its feet, largely unaffected by the blow.

"Yo, Paras there's a bug type, so it ain't takin' too much damage there from a fighting type attack, yo, looks like there's somethin' to be said for staying close to the ground, y'know?"

"All right Paras, let's win this with a scratch attack!"

"Par!"

Paras raises a claw, jumping at the Crabrawler and landing a direct hit.

"Crab... Braw..." The crabrawler dizzily stood up, body swaying side to side. "Braw... Ler."

Crabrawler fell back down, and it was clear who was the victor.

"Paras, we did it, Crabrawler fainted!"

"Para!"

"Now maybe we should help out the others..." Guzma chuckled, Kukui and Molayne called out attacks to Rockruff and Magnemite.

"Nah man," the Skull put his hand on Guzma's shoulder. "They got this. Why don't you give your pokemon here this fresh water to heal it up while we wait?"

"I g-guess that's a good idea." Guzma took the water bottle from the Skull and gave it to Paras to drink. By the time Paras finished, the other two trainers had defeated the crabrawlers and were ready to move onwards.

"Dudes, that was over-the-top awesome, thanks a ton!" The Skull with the pink hair chuckled.

"Happy to help," Molayne mused, "but it's strange that we were attacked by crabrawler, usually they don't venture far from their berry piles. Even stranger, we've been walking for a long while and still haven't had any trouble with pikipek."

"Yo man, lighten up! Let's just keep movin', we're almost there."

"Almost there? We just started walking recently," Molayne held his forehead with confusion.

"Yo, look, it's the trial site."

"The trial site?" Kukui ran forward, suddenly interested.

" **BRAW!** "

"What is _that_!" Molayne shouted, "It's huge!"  
Guzma stared at the angry pokemon, it looked just like a crabrawler, with it's blue, round claws help up like boxing gloves, the swagger in it's eye, except instead of being a little more than a foot tall, this crabrawler was ten.

"How could a crabrawler be ten feet tall?" Kukui yelled, calling back his dog pokemon to its pokeball. "Rockruff, return, let's get outta here!"

"Braw-ler!" The goliath pokemon bellowed, forcing Guzma to take half a step back.

"P-Paras, r-return..." He wanted to bolt out of the forest, to get as far away from the Crabrawler as possible.

 _If you want to be brave,_ Lusamine's voice echoed in Guzma's mind, _be brave. It doesn't matter what anyone thinks._

"Okay Wimpod," Guzma took out the pokeball of his partner, throwing it into the air, "Let's show this baddie what we got!"

"Wim!" Wimpod squealed, ducking behind Guzma and hiding from the enormous boxing pokemon.

"C'mon Wimpod, I know it's scary, but we agreed to help these... Skulls. And Wimpod, we aren't regular weaklings, we're _trainers_. A-and when trainers get scared, they face it, because they got courage and they know what's right. And whether we like it or not, we're training together, as partners, to take on the world, well..." Guzma clutched his blue dawn stone, "It's about time we took the first step."

"Pod." Wimpod slowly moved out from behind Guzma, trembling and twitching its antennae.

"Guzma's right," Molayne turned to Magnemite with a friendly glance "we gotta do this."

"Looks like majority rules again," Kukui sighed, "let's get this thing. I choose you, Litten!"

"Tten!"

"Yo, thanks for havin' our back here!" A Skull shouted, "Y'all can do this!"

"All right Litten, use ember!"

"Li!" Litten shot small flames from its mouth, hitting the goliath boxing pokemon.

"Cra?" Crabrawler swerved and stared down at Litten. "Brawl!" The punching crab started charging at Litten with a claw outstretched.

"Wimpod, sand attack!" Guzma called.

Wimpod dug its tail into the earth and flung a fistful of sand into Crabrawler's eyes, and the towering Pokemon veered off course and slammed into a tree, breaking the wood and felling the splintered trunk.

"All right Magnemite," Molayne pumped a fist, "Hit it with your sonicboom!"

"Maaag!" Magnemite flipped in the air, sending a wave of Sonic energy straight into Crabrawler's side, creating a small explosion on contact.

"Braw!" The crabrawler barked angrily, swinging its claw towards Magnemite and smacking it out of the air like a fly.

"Magnemite!" Molayne rushed forward.

"You alright buddy?" The skinny boy asked, helping Magnemite back into the air.

"Mite..." Magnemite nodded, sparkling with electricity.

"Litten, let's make this big baby pay for that hit, use fire fang!"

"Tten..." Litten growled, leaping into the air with flames burning from its mouth, but Crabrawler opened a claw and fired energized blue discs from it, hitting Litten dead on.

"A bubblebeam attack!" Molayne gasped, "A water type attack like bubblebeam is super effective against a fire type like Litten, careful, Kukui!"

"Yeah, I know **now** ," Kukui grumbled.

"All right Magnemite, thundershock!"

"Mite." Magnemite charged a thin blue bolt of electricity and zapped Crabrawler.

"Raw..." Crabrawler started punching back Magnemite rhythmically.

"That's a dizzy punch, Magnemite, get away!"

"Ne..." Magnemite tried to dip and dodge out of reach, but the boxing pokemon was too fast for it.

 _They need a diversion..._ Guzma clenched a wavering fist.

"Wimpod, hit its back with a struggle bug!"

"Im!" Wimpod leapt onto Crabrawler's back and began hitting it with its tail.

Crabrawler didn't seem to notice as it continued punching at Magnemite.

"Your attack is so weak, the Crabrawler doesn't even notice?" Kukui groaned, his hands limp at his sides. "This thing is too strong, we're never gonna be able to beat it. Our attacks aren't working and it's gonna beat all our pokemon."

"Hmm," Molayne agreed, "we need a plan."

"Not what I meant... All right Guzma, if you can't deal damage with your pokemon, what can it do?"

"We r-run a lot."

"Well, that'll help us a lot." Kukui retorted, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

"Lay off, Kukui." Molayne shook his head.

 _There's gotta be a way..._ Guzma's eyes rested on the fallen tree.

"That's it guys!" He shouted with a grin.

"Huh?"

"Molayne, can Magnemite stop levitating if it wants to?"

"Sure..." Molayne shifted uncomfortably, his hand brushing his chest.

"Have Magnemite attack Crabrawler, then fall straight to the ground."

"Guzma, what's wrong with you?" Kukui hollered, "That crabrawler will squash it!"

"Just do it..." Guzma looked into Molayne's uncertain eyes, "Trust me."

"Cra..." Crabrawler wound up another punch.

"Magnemite, use thundershock, then drop to the ground!"

"Mag!" Magnemite released a jolt of electricity at the blue boxing gloves of the crabrawler, and it turned its angry gaze towards the small magnet pokemon.

"Magnemite..." Molayne glanced at Guzma. "Stop levitating!"

Magnemite closed its eye and began falling like a rock.

"Wimpod, catch Magnemite and run behind another tree!"

"Wim!" Wimpod raced over to Magnemite, catching the electric type on its tail and scuttling behind a large trunk. The angered Crabrawler smashed into the tree, and bark sprayed off from the impact, the trunk falling across from the first fallen log, the tops of the branches overlapping.

 _It worked!_ Guzma clenched his fists with excitement. _Now for the hardest part._

"Wimpod, take Magnemite to the base of that palm!"

Guzma pointed to a palm tree right behind Wimpod, and the bug type took a few steps back so that Magnemite was touching the tree.

"Ler... Ler..." Crabrawler panted, leering at Magnemite and Wimpod, slowly raising its rounded pincer.

"Guzma, it's gonna hit you with a rock smash!" Kukui yelled, "Litten, u-"

"Don't!" Guzma interrupted, watching Crabrawler's claw fall, "Okay Wimpod, get outta there... Now!"

"Wim!" Wimpod darted to the left, and Crabrawler's attack hit the base of the palm tree, snapping it.

"Braw!" Crabrawler stepped backwards, avoiding the falling palm tree.

"All right Guzma," Kukui scowled, your plan didn't work. The tree didn't hit Crabrawler, and a bunch of risks later, we're back where we started."

"Oh really?" Guzma grinned, "Look where the palm fell."

"The trees..." Molayne's mouth opened in a wide smile. "They form a triangle around Crabrawler!"

"Well, what does that help?" Kukui retorted.

Guzma's grin grew wider. "Think Litten's got enough firepower to set them on fire?"

"The trees? Now we're talking, Litten's strong enough for anything!" Kukui pumped his first in the air. "Litten, use ember on those logs, full power!"

"Li..."

Crabrawler turned its gaze to the tiger cat pokemon with the ball of flames charging in it's mouth.

"Magnemite, distract it, use sonic boom!"

"Mite!" Magnemite generated the powerful sound wave directed at Crabrawler, and the behemoth crab turned away from Litten.

"Now Litten," Kukui pointed at the logs. "Ember!"

"Tten!" Litten let loose the flames, spread across all the wood, lighting it ablaze.

"Braw..." Crabrawler looked around, unable to escape the searing flames from all sides.

"With Crabrawler trapped and taking damage from the flames, finishing it off should be a piece of cake!" Molayne cheered.

"Litten, ember!"

"Magnemite, thundershock!"

"Wimpod, struggle bug!"

The three pokemon struck the figure in the flames, and soon the fire had died down enough to see Crabrawler fainted on the forest floor.

"W-we did it..."

"Woo! Perfect, Litten!"

"All right!"

The three friends looked at eachother with pride, and a triumphant quiet fell over the forest.

"Heh..." Kukui mused, "I guess we make a decent team."

"Yo, you dudes were the bomb!" One of the Skulls cheered.

"You can say that again!" Molayne grinned ear to ear. "Y'know Guzma, you're not half bad, isn't that right Kukui?"

"You got me," Kukui laughed, his hands raised in mock surrender. "We better get to Hala's trial already though, we're gonna be super late now!"

A loud, childish voice came from the trees, and Guzma let out an involuntary yelp.

"I'm happy to tell you," The voice said, "you all passed!"

A young boy with a heavy tan and yellow shirt dropped down in front of them, a mankey by his side.

"Brawly!" Kukui and Molayne shouted in unicent.

"Who's Brawly?" Guzma asked, the boy couldn't have been more than eight, maybe nine, and he had an incredible grin pasted on his small face.

"Brawly is Bruno's younger brother, and Trial Captain Hala's son. He _also_ has some explaining to do."

"Who me?" Brawly sniggered, petting the mankey beside him. "I was just in charge of making sure no other pokemon besides our crabrawler friends got in your way."

"So that means..."

"Yo, we gotta go clean bro!" The Skulls took the wood they were carrying off their backs and chuckled. "The bridge to the Ruins of Conflict is perfectly fine and safe, Hala wanted us to help test you, yo!"

"And," Hala came out from behind a tree. "You did excellently."

"W-what was trial?" Guzma stuttered, confused. "How d-did we pass?"

"Oh, Guzma my boy, do you remember that night when I visited your wonderful family? Do you remember what I told you?"

"You said that everything through life..." Guzma paused, memories of the night returning to him. "Is a test."

"Very good Guzma!" Hala exclaimed, "The trials here in Alola are not just simple tasks, such as gathering ingredients or taking pictures, but instead aim to be true tests for the nature of both trainer and pokemon. If there's one thing I want you to remember, it is that as you strive to your destiny, the rest of life is no different. With every decision, every path available, your choices reflect who you are just as much as the trials you face do.

"In essence, I want my trial to show what sort of decisions you make outside of battle, away from the watchful eyes of a trial captain. Therefore, I sent this group of youngsters to ask for your help, at the cost of "being late" to my trial."

Kukui's face started to glow red. "So that's why you kept your trial a secret this whole time?"

"Well, it wouldn't be much of a trial if you knew about it!" Hala laughed, "I'm so glad all three of you passed... It is my duty and honor to present you with these _Fightinium Z_ replicates."

"Fightinium what?" Guzma asked, staring at the ochere crystals in Hala's calloused hand.

" _Fightinium Z_ is a Z-crystal, a powerful and rare crystal found only in the Alola region. If certain conditions are met, giving a Z-Crystal to a pokemon can let your pokemon use a very powerful attack called a Z-Move. Many years ago, these Z-Crystals were established as the proof that a trainer passed a trial, but since then, the crystals have grown sparse, and so outside of exceptional scenarios we use replicates."

Hala began handing the brown crystals out to Kukui, Molayne, and Guzma.

"Your next stop, when you feel ready, should be Puna's Verdant Cavern, where you will face her in battle as your Grand Trial. She is a bug type specialist, and not to be taken lightly. Good luck to you all, and remember:"

Hala paused locking eyes with Guzma.

"The secret to succeeding in these trials is what you do outside of them. Train hard, be kind, and you will thrive."

* * *

 **A/N: Been gone for over a year with an absurdly difficult schedule. But I'm back and trying to write again, and this chapter needed only minor edits before being published, it was already done. However, in light of both the events of US/UM and my own development as a writer, I'm going to be cutting out a lot of story, most notably:**

 **Ollie and Aaron, the Ultra Beasts: Cutting them out completely, now that more about the Ultra Beast's dimension is known**

 **Bruno's POV: Bruno will still exist, but most of his POV will be cut out and he'll have a far reduced role**

 **Kukui and Molayne will also have roles reduced, to maintain the focus of the story on Guzma.  
TL;DR: I'm back and doing heavy editing after this goes up.**

 **I'm open to feedback as to what you especially liked and would like to see in the future as well.**


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